Preparing for Sandy, the Hurricane! October 27th and 28th, 2012

 

Saturday was pretty normal for a Saturday. We got up at 8am, had a delicious breakfast of oatmeal, bacon, and bagels with cream cheese. After breakfast we started to work on convention items and school work for me. The day was gloomy again, no sun at all. Hubby was fairly productive, me a little less than he. By this time in the weekend we had been hearing reports that the East coast would be hit with a hurricane, Sandy. But of course no one knows how hard or where it will even land. It’s so awesome, not, how the TV and radio so totally scare people. It’s the storm of the year, of the century, of the decade. We did take a few preparations, nothing major but like got more water, and clean-up the deck, and secured all the stuff out there. Even though hubby and I were busy with our own items, it was nice to be with him. By the end of the day I was emotionally drained, tired, and just wanted to pull the covers over my head in bed and stay there.

 

Sunday, was normal for a Sunday. We woke up early at like 7:30am. Got ready for church. And left for church around 9:20am, for the 9:30am service. Our senior Pastor was not there, so one of the associates gave the sermon. We got a ride to church from neighbors, but I still took Missy in harness. People are still asking her name, but my response is still, “I am sorry I can’t tell you.” Usually people are nice about it, but some are like, “well I deserve to know your dogs name!”.  After church we headed home. I started laundry, and hubby worked on a resolution for convention. At 1:30pm, we got picked up by my FIL to go and see Emma.

 

It takes us about 40minutes to get up there. Again it was a gloomy dreary day, no sun *sad face* Once we got up to Upper Black Eddie, we had to wait for my BIL to arrive. I left Missy in a folding crate in my BIL’s living room. The house of the family who has Emma is a few minutes drive down from his.

 

We were greeted at the door by Emma and her new family. They are such a great family, two kids, two boys in fact. Nice home. She, Emma is so happy. And they love her to death. The oldest son is trying to get Emma to retrieve toys. I told him how it might work. So he tried it, and she did exactly what he had been wanting. Every once in a while Emma would make her rounds to see everyone. She definitely remembered me, and would come to me first. I could tell that she was torn now between her new mom and me, her old mom. She was so calm there, instead of being stressed out. She smelled like my Emma girl. And it was amazing to see how much smaller she is compared to my new puppy. Emma’s new mom and dad spent some time with us; it was good to get to know them. It’s a really awesome family, who love Emma, who love pets and animals, and who I know will take care of her. But it was very hard for me to say goodbye. She didn’t quite understand what was going on. I told myself I would not cry, but I did. I could not hold it in. I love my Emma girl, and she deserves to be a dog now, after her hard work for me, she serves it, but it hurts. I didn’t realize how hard it would be. My instinct was to run back into the house and get her back, she’ll never work again, and she is not my dog anymore. My house even still smells like her, even though I have been home with Missy for 2 weeks now. My heart hurts so much for my Emma girl. The family has said that we can come up and see her anytime we want, that they will bring her down to me to see. I needed today, I needed that closure. I know she is well, loved, and taken care of. In some time after my heart has healed, I’ll see her again. By then, she will have forgotten all about me. Even thinking and writing about this now, I could cry.

 

Just because this is therapeutic for me, I need to write this.

 

I love you Emma. You were a special girl to me. Given to me on my birthday, and the best present to that point. You were there in a time of my life, when I had no one else. You loved me in the good and bad times, in the dark and light times. In three different states. You kept me well, safe and happy. You were a good worker. And I am forever grateful thankful for all that you did for me, to keep me safe, and in one piece. Thank you for your love. But now it’s time for you to love another family. Be free, run, jump, and have fun. Do all the things that normal dogs get to do, and more. Have fun with your little people too, keep them safe, and be good. Follow your new mom’s instruction, no accidents in the house, no eating shoes. Love them like you did me. You’re a very special animal to me, you always will be. Thank you!

 

After my tearful goodbye to Emma, we went back to BIL’s house and just hung out. We decided to go to eat at a restaurant called the Ship Inn. It’s in New Jersey and let’s say they have the best Mac-n-Cheese ever. OMG it was out of this world delicious. A good friends of BIL’s came along to dinner. We headed for home around 7pm. When we left the restaurant, it was sprinkling out. By the time we got home it was still raining but windier.

 

When we got home, we had some more convention items to get accomplished. I had a guide dog conference call to attend.  We could hear the wind blowing in the basement, as they said on the radio the winds were already up to 40mph. It still was not raining much. Thankfully we on Sunday evening still have power. And let’s hope we continue to, as both hubby and I are worried about the basement flooding. Our office, audio, music, and tv viewing equipement is all in the basement. We are planning on taking some items up, just to be on the safe side, but it still worries us.

 

We were in bed at 11pm. Another one of those nights were I don’t remember going to bed. It was a short weekend, too short. I could use some more quality time with my husband, but I’ll take what I can get. Oh yeah can’t forget about this, because of the storm, Sandy, my university has cancelled classes for the next two days. Woo Hoo! Well this is good and bad, I am suppose to have a group presentation on Thursday, but now we haven’t been able to meet. All of the universities, colleges, schools, and most of the business have closed down. The government offices are closed, as we have a friend who works in the OVR office. All of the public transportation has stopped too. Over 1000 flights have been cancelled for just today. And they are expecting more for tomorrow.  

 

More tomorrow……

Week 2, October 22nd to October 26th 2012

 

^{Monday was a very uneventful day. I didn’t go anywhere,} had not planned on going anywhere, and didn’t want to go anywhere. I was in fact productive with personal matters and homework. I am still very behind but it’s becoming not so overwhelming.

 

Tuesday was as normal. Woke up before the sun and chickens. It would probably not be so hard to get up if we could get to bed before 11pm the night before. Morning classes went as normal. The issue of the day was with Missy having an accident on the way to school and on the way back to the train. Let’s just say I was not happy, and paranoid that she was going to poop in the building. About half way through my history of social work class, I read my email that said my last class, human behavior was cancelled. So this meant I could get on an earlier train, and be home early. I was absolutely happy about this. I caught a 12:56 train. I was home by 2:05pm! From here I started to work on more school work. Missy’s work is awesome; we just need to resolve the breaking issue in harness on route.

 

Wednesday Missy and I finished up our follow up care with the field rep from GDF. He gave me a slip leather collar. I had never seen it before. It’s like a slip collar, but with a leather buckle. It rides high up on her neck, right behind the ears. Its used when working to know what her head is looking at. For example on my university campus, there are thousands of squirrels and birds. And because she is a dog sometimes she gets distracted. It does not hurt the dogs. When she is working I need her attention to be on our route, not the squirrels, not the birds. With the field rep we walked through my neighborhood using the new collar, we chose to walk in my neighborhood, as there are also lots of squirrels, birds, but bunnies, and dogs too. She did well, for the exception of breaking again in harness on our route. So we decided to reduce Missy’s food from 4 cups to 3 a day. And to give her 1 cup in the morning, and 2 at night. The field rep is also going to check into a high balance handle for my harness.

 

The afternoon was spent on homework. I finished one paper, so 3 more to go to catch up.

 

For dinner hubby and I went to my MIL’s house. Hubby’s brother and his children were there, and SIL was there. FIL was out at a dinner. We had a nice dinner and got to talk. When the kids, my niece and nephew are there we don’t get to talk as much as we would like. Missy did well. She was a bit stressed but was fine after a while. It was nice to spend time with family.

 

On this night I got to talk to my children on the phone. It was awesome to talk to them. My oldest told me all about his birthday. For my oldest birthday, I sent him a card. That had a picture of a convertible on the outside. And it said something to the effect of, “Inside are the keys to your new car!” On the inside it said something to the effect to, “Did you really thing you were going to get real keys and a real car?” I thought it was cute, since my son was now driving age. I also sent him money, so did hubby’s mom, and my parents; in all he racked it up with the money.  The middle told us all about his latest sports stuff like goal ball and karate. And my daughter told us all about her band activities, her volleyball games and what was going on. By the time I speak to them at night they are exhausted from school. All three of them have to get up early. Like for example the HS starts school at 7:15am. And my daughter starts middle school at 8am. I personally do not remember going to school that early.

 

Thursday was about normal for a school day. The night before I didn’t sleep well at all. And when I did get up, felt like “poop”. I felt like I was going to puke, and have other things happen from other ends. I had the cold sweat thing going on too. It didn’t help that I did not sleep well; I did more tossing and turning than sleeping. The night before at my MIL’s house I had one glass of adult beverage, but it might have affected me although it was not strong or a lot. I was about after I got on the train and to school able to pull it together enough to feel somewhat human. I didn’t have my first class, as my professor’s friend passed away and she was going up to be with that family. So I was going to meet a friend, a class mate to work on a project. So I got up where we were going to meet, waited and waited and waited. I was a little miffed but was more worried than anything. I found things to kill my time. On this particular day I took my laptop to school, so it was hard carrying so much with me. My walk to classes went well. Missy had NO accidents. And her work was awesome! By the time I figured out my fellow classmate was not going to show up, it was time to go to my next class.

 

For the first time ever, I fell asleep in Econ. I really try hard to stay away, as I hope something she is lecturing about soaks in to my brain. But I was so extremely tired I could not help it. I am not advocating for a student to sleep during class, nor do I do this ever, but on this particular day, my body just shut down. During my lunch break, I spend a good amount of time taking Missy out to break. She finally peed but nothing more.

 

Maybe I am strange, but as a long time guide dog user, I get paranoid whenever my dog does not go break. *shrug* this was the first day of Missy’s reduction in food in the morning.

 

I have to say Missy’s work was awesome! Only bit of work yet to do, not like my work with ever be done with my puppy is that when I am headed towards the train, she pulls like a freight train. Wow do I have a strong left arm. Don’t mess with me LOL

 

After school, for dinner we went to my FIL’s house. He picked me up from the train and took me home. Then Missy and I walked half way and hubby met us from him, walking from his work. We had a delicious dinner to pot pies and salad. My BIL brought deserts. After dinner, we all sat around talking and working out on how to solve nail puzzles. Yes nail puzzles. They are big nails bent into strange shapes. And they are two nails, and you must try to get them apart, by twisting, or moving them this way or that way. Hubby loves games like this. My brain started to shut down around 8pm. So we came home shortly afterwards. I broke the pup and went to bed. We were in bed at 10pm! 

 

Friday was a non-school day but still was busy. The first order of business, Missy had a vet appointment. Not because anything was wrong, but just to get her established. When I left the school, Missy weighed 68 pounds, with the not very accurate weighing method. But at my vets she was 70 pounds. I don’t think she gained any, but this had to be her real weight. Otherwise she has a clean bill of health. And everyone thought she was extremely cute. Really she did a great job in the vets. Yes there were a lot of smells and places she sniffed, but she didn’t do as much sniffing as I thought she would have. There were other dogs in their who were making a lot of noise. But she was just very calm. Way more calm than my Emma girl. The vet took a lot of time checking her out.

 

Then we were off to my appointment. On the way we stopped at my MIL house to a quick potty break. We arrived at the appointment early and was taken back to the little room early. But it was another 30 minutes until the doctor came in. Again everyone in the office thought Missy was beautiful and cute. She did well. I saw the doctor and had a hearing test. I was told that I had a significant hearing loss from the previous hearing tests. He recommends that I get new aids. I knew this that again my hearing has gotten worse, but it was something I didn’t want to acknowledge. They didn’t tell me how much in numbers, as I have the report of the hearing test though. Honestly I am not concerned with knowing those numbers, as I know it’s gotten worse and worse. And frankly it scares me. I could so go into how I am not cool with this, don’t like it, am angry about it, don’t understand it, want it to go away, would like to hide from it, want new ears…..Shall I go on? I’ll leave it at that.

 

After my appointment with the ENT, we headed to Target for a few items. I have been getting calluses on my left hand from holding on to the harness handle, so it was recommended that I use a bike glove. I also got a laptop sleeve so that when I need to take my laptop into school I can just put into my backpack. I also got Missy a tug toy. I know, I know, I know what the guide dog schools say, for all you guide dog users out there, who say I am going to mess up my pup. I don’t think I will, and playing with a tug toy is a great way for my pup to get out of a lot of energy. I never let her win, when I am done and we need to stop, I say “enough”. She, my Missy is one very very strong pup. For all those who have no clue what I am talking about, guide dog schools say, at least the three I have been to, say that if I play tug with my pup, it will lead to other bad behaviors. Like I said I am the alpha dog, I win in the tug games. And it’s in only short periods of time. Oh and I also got batteries at Target.

 

Once we were done at Target, which didn’t take us long. We went to pick up my hubby. He had ordered groceries from Acme online. So we picked him up, went and got the groceries and took them home. If you order groceries online they will bring them out to your car. Hubby was there to carry all of them in. We quickly put up the cold items, and then had a quick lunch. Sadly then hubby had to go back to work.

 

My afternoon was spent looking up my spring semester courses. Why did this simple task take me so long? Because my major university’s website is not completely accessible and difficult to navigate. I found two of the courses I needed, actually more. But I need the code for the classes I want to sign up for, and getting that code is not the easiest of tasks. I have to have my academic advisor help me register for classes because again the website is not the easiest to use for a blind student.

 

By the time I got two class codes, it was time for hubby to be home. Now if hubby walks home at 5:30pm or later, it is almost dark. I seriously hate this part of winter, how early it gets dark. Hubby and I made a delicious dinner of spaghetti and salad. Now we are working on our “to do” lists. Hubby’s specifically as our convention stuff tasks.

 

Overall it was a busy week, with good and bad. During meal times, hubby and I will read or listen to a movie, book or TV series. Currently we are reading 90 minutes in heaven. It’s very interesting. It’s making me think about God and my relationship with him. If you haven’t read the book, you should do so.

 

Well I am closing this for now, as both hubby and I are falling asleep in front of our computers. Perhaps I will sleep latish tomorrow.

 

Until next time….

Weekend, Glorious Weekend! (October 20 and 21, 2012)

Saturday morning began with a young little pup wagging her tail and it going “thump, thump”. So no sleeping in for us. It wasn’t too much earlier than when our alarms went off. But I have a built in alarm, in my pup. She always knows when it is time to get up, go to bed, and eat breakfast or dinner.

We had a nice breakfast of oatmeal and bacon. After breakfast, I got ready to work with the field rep again. Hubby was looking through a bin of Jell-O’s to find the right flavor and kind. He used his IPhone with the Digit-Eyes app. The Digit-Eyes app is an app for the IPhone that will allow a blind person to scan the bar-code, and find out what the product is. The app costs about #20, but is well worth the app. It’s very easy to use, and has found every bar-code we have scanned. Even better if there is information from the manufacture, there can be instructions on how to prepare the food or how to use it. We love it! When I say we are looking through a bin of Jell-O and Jell-O puddings. Let’s just say we have every flavor on the earth of both puddings and jell-os. We found the flavor we were going to use for our church’s pie social.

Around 11:15 the field rep arrived at my house. So we had some time to kill. So he and I walked up to the Giant near my home. It’s a several block walk, with curbs, street crossings, and wildlife including people and dogs. LOL So we made it there and back, we didn’t actually go into the store, no time on this day. So we headed back home, we were planning on catching the 12:45pm train to my university. Once we got back to my house, we both grabbed our things and drove very quickly to the train. As we were sitting at a light, with the train on our left, it passed us by. And before we could get up to the train station it was gone. We missed it but just by minutes. Grrrr! This meant that the online, mobile app, and schedule on the phone were all wrong! When we got to the station we confirmed the time, and looked at the schedule for the next day. We decided to work on Sunday after church.

In a way this was nice it worked out that way but not too. He took me home, the field rep. and he went on his way. At this point I wasn’t hungry, so we skipped lunch. I had a few phone calls to make. And hubby worked on his treasurer duties. The one call I made, lasted a long time, to the client I am working with up in NY. I will be going up to NY to work with her on parenting skills and attend a convention. There is a lot of planning for both weekends. Sadly all of the calls took up most of my afternoon, and before I knew it was 5pm. We were schedule to leave for church walking at 6pm. We ate a quick dinner, but then a friend from church called to offer us a ride. We took them up on their offer. I was taking Missy with us to church.

The pie social at church was fun, there were not as many families there as I had expected. But it was still fun. I lost count of how many different pies. We took Jell-O Jiggler’s for the kids. The kids played lots and lots of games, find the candy in the corn, pin the leave on the tree. At least I think that was the game. And then there were other games. I only participated in one. They put donuts on strings, hanging from a pole. We could not use our hands, and was blindfolded to eat the donuts. There were 3 adults that did this alongside me. I did not win, as I was laughing too hard to chew too much too fast! But it was fun, and by the end I was covered in sweet icing.

Sunday was about the same. The difference was that Missy did not wake us up. We woke before her. We had to wake up early on this morning, as my hubby plays in the worship team at church.

Our walk to church was fine for only one part with Missy. On the way to church she did not want to walk again in the gutter because of those stupid leaves. Then we could not find a sidewalk, because someone was not paying attention and thought she would rather go play with the wildlife. We made it to the church in one piece. Hubby had his practice and then the regular church began. Missy was very well behaved. She slept during most of the service. You could not hear her snoring, because an older woman was snoring behind us louder. After church we, Missy and I were the main attraction. Lots of people had known that I was gone. So then all of a sudden, I come back with a new pup. We got back home in about 20minutes and then rushed around for me to get ready to go on the train. The field rep was at our house a bit early, so we got a head start.

When we got to the train station, the train was delayed. LOL We worked on some platform stuff. He showed me another way to walk on the platform. At the school, they trained the dogs to walk on the edge of the platform. The edge is where there usually bumpy dots to say it’s the edge. The field rep changed it so that we are walking just to the right or left of the dots, on the concrete. Up in NY, the tactual bumpy dots on the edge of the platforms, are wide, here they are narrower. If I have my pup walk on the bumpy dots, and then I get pushed, I will go over. I already do not like platforms.

Once the train arrived, we boarded. The train was not busy at all, and it was an old train. The field rep showed me a few tricks and techniques to getting Missy under and in the seats. It worked this time because the train was not busy or crowded. On the way there, the field rep and I talked about guide dog schools and the differences. We arrived at my university station and departed the train. She went right for the elevator, with only one command of where to go.

Our purpose for the trip down to the university was to find areas in which I could take her to potty. Once on the ground level of the train station, he found the first place I could take her to potty. We started our 3 block, walk to the campus. And found another spot for potty breaks. We walked all the way to my building with my classes. I would say, if I were to estimate it’s about an 8 block walk. Once at the building we again were looking for more areas to “break” my pup. The one difficulty of this day was that the birds and squirrels were out in force. My pup loves the birds and the squirrels. So whenever we were walking outside I had to give her the “leave it” command. Several times I had to give her a hard leash correction to get her attention off the squirrels or birds. We found 3 more spots to relieve Missy on the campus. I am at school for a very long day, so I know she is going to have to go.

By the time we headed back to the train, I was exhausted. When I got home, hubby had a delicious dinner made. We had steak, potatoes, and spinach. After dinner we got some very important things done. Like we bought our tickets for our NFB state convention in two weeks. And then I also registered, guaranteed the hotel room, and bought my train tickets for the NY state convention.

I will be going to NY for the NFB state convention. I have been mentoring a parent up there, and this will be her first convention. The really cool thing about the NY convention, is that I will have the opportunity to go to a Broadway show. We will be seeing the Phantom of the Opera. Yipppppeeeeeee!

And the really really awesome thing about the PA state convention I get to spent a few days with my hubby. And this year I will be speaking to the convention floor about a subject I feel very passionately about.

The subject I will be speaking to the convention about is, parents who are blind. Now I know many of you all reading out there, can’t even imagine raising a child without being able to see. I have done it, and there are thousands of others who are doing it successfully right now. Just because a person can not use there eyes to see, does not mean that they are a less of a person, less capable. It just means we have some unique challenges to deal with. In particular in recent years there has been a number of cases of parents who are blind, are being investigated because of their blindness, and for no other reason. It is most of the time well intended social workers, school teachers, neighbors, doctors, nurses, other social agency services, adoption counselors, lawyers, and judges, who are not versed in the ways of the blind. They can’t imagine themselves doing it, thus it’s not doable. There are lots of different techniques that a blind parent might use to take care of their child. But this does not mean that parent should be investigated, or nor that the child should be removed from the home. Yes folks, children are being taken away from capable parents, because they are blind. It happens in divorces, in adoptions, supervision cases, in many other situations. Many times parents will find themselves in trouble, have no clue where to turn, the social worker has no clue what to do, because they have never worked with a blind person ever. The judge has no clue, the lawyer has no clue. I have been through this myself, not once, but twice with my teenage children. I will not go into a lot of details here, but there was an attempt to take custody away because of my blindness. This cannot continue to happen. I don’t want any other parent to go through what I did. I am 30something old, I am dedicating the rest of my living life to ensure that this does not happen. I am not also just talking about blind parents, but parents who are disabled in general. If they are capable, there is no abuse, no neglect, then leave the children in the home. If you didn’t already know from this blog, I live a very full life and am very active. I am blind, it hasn’t stopped me yet!

It was overall an awesome weekend. The weather was beautiful, nice and cool, not hot or humid. The leaves are starting to fall off the trees, and turn wonderful fall colors. The mornings are chilly. It’s a beautiful autumn in PA. Every weekend I can spend with my hubby is a good one. The only bad weekends are that they are entirely too darn short.

Thanks for reading my ramblings….More to come, next time…..

The Day We Were Suppose to Come Home (October 19, 2012)

Friday, this is the day my class was supposed to be over on. I was supposed to come home on this day. But instead I have been home for 4 days now. The weather on this day matches my mood; it’s dreary, and rainy. I don’t have much to be down or sad about, but it’s more that I am tired. Coming home from guide dog school, with a new guide, with all of my school work, its overwhelming. Coming home with a new guide, it’s like coming home with a new baby. Where ever I go, she goes. Whatever I do, she does. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind doing all of the getting use to each other stuff, but it’s tiring. I will say that I love my labby girl, and I love waking up to her tail wagging because she is happy. I will say that I feel better than I have a in the past few days, this is partly due to the amount of sleep I got last night, which apparently I needed.

Hubby went to work as usual. I started off answering emails and starting on some school work. I didn’t get far when, the field rep from the school called to say he would be in area at 11:30am. So I rushed off to get ready, dressed and all together.

He arrived right at 11:30am. We talked for a good while, about class, about my new pup, about guide dog schools, and so on. Around noon we took a walk to my church. Remember the route that didn’t go so well a few days ago. The curbs we get to first, she misses, but then we re-work it, and she gets it right away. On to the broken up sidewalk, she does fine. To the fire hydrant and she clears me just fine. To crossing the street, and again great. It’s like we had been doing this route for years. After crossing, on to our country work. And yet again wonderful.

One discovery is that Missy does not like to walk on leaves when they are dry and crunchy. But if they are wet, no biggie at all. So we cross the street we are walking along, she finds the curbs no problems. Then we walk into the parking lot no issues. We get to our right hand country walk, no issues; we get to the church, no issues. The field rep was like, what did you need help with. I said it wasn’t the going route that was the issue; it was the going back route that gave us trouble. We head back; she got all the curbs, went around all the obstacles, hugged the left hand side or the road, cleared the fire hydrant, and made it home well. I was proud but miffed that when the instructor is here, she did well. Oh well! We set up a time tomorrow to take the train into my university and walk around. The field rep has to work with the other students who were in my class who have dogs who are related to mine. My lesson with the field rep last about an hour and half. By the time I got home I was soaked, as it was like 100percent humidity.

After I got home. I ate a quick and simple lunch, and then got to work on answering emails from the morning, and school work. Around 3ish, I fell asleep in front of my computer again. LOL It was only for a short period of time. Soon after hubby came home. For dinner we had Pizza and Popcorn, I know not healthy, but very yummy. During dinner we also listened to the ending of “The diary of a Wimpy kid” movie. We started it a few nights ago. We watched, or rather listened to it. There is a service out there where we get movies in a DVS format. DVS means Described Video Services, in other words, anything that happens action wise, is verbally described in a narrative voice. They try not to speak over the actor’s voices, so this means they could be describing the action before it happens, or after it happens. It’s a little hard to get used to, but it helps us, the blind, know what is going on the screen. When I say there is a service, I mean there is a website that will allow us to download them for free. It’s not the regular movie; it’s just the audio, no picture. Hubby and I put it on an MP3 player and listen. We have watched other shows like NCIS. Not everything is offered in a DVS format, but some movies and now series are. A person who also has been blind for a while can also learn to pick up on what is going on with the action, not to say that it’s the easiest.

Ok, back on track, now we are working on school work, and other things.

Until tomorrow….

First Day Back to Classes (October 18, 2012)

I was up at 4:30am. Yes you read that right, an ungodly hour of 4:30am. The sun is not up, the chickens are not up, and only we crazies are up. Well and of course those who have classes at 8am are up.

Missy and I left for the train station at 6:10am. We ride a 6:49 train, but I wanted to allow enough time for Missy and me on our first day back. Once at the train station, we went into the station for our tickets. Then out to the track. It was pretty chilly on this morning. Let me also say that the other ladies I ride with, who also go to school with, were there. I am a bad and horrible friend because I didn’t let them know that I was home, that I would be on the train that time of the morning, and that I got Missy. Well they knew I got Missy, but nothing about her.

We arrive at the Temple train station at 7:30am; we walk without much trouble to our building. I walk with the same friend I have been walking with before I got Missy. I am now back down to walking from the train station to my building in about 15 minutes. With a cane, if I were alone this would take me about 25 to 30 minutes. Missy was totally on her game on our walk to our classes. I was proud of her, as I expected our first walk on campus, with me trying to get to classes stressful. But nope my lab girl did well.

When I got to classes, everyone was happy to see me. This was unexpected, but nice. Missy snored a bit through class, but I don’t think anyone heard her. Second class was about the same. The funny thing is that Missy did snore in this class, but she wasn’t heard because a student behind me snored louder. LOL third class very much the same. Classmates told me that they were reading the blog, but because of how much reading was required for school could not keep up. I am not going to be taking this down any time soon, so read away! After my third class, I made my way outside. I knew Missy needed to break, or potty. So I found two cars she could go between, and she did her thing. I was proud of her, as right across the street was construction that was incredible noisy. I then had to break myself and afterwards got her water. I took a folding bowl for her at one of the conventions for the blind. It’s green, bright green. I filled it up and she drank and drank. We got water all over the floor, but I was happy she drank. Emma would have never drank from a folding bowl; it was only the metal bowl at home. It was time for my lunch. I bought a soda at the little café, and then went to sit down. I sort of do not like the way this little café is set up. It has booths, and then high tables with high chairs. I don’t like sitting at the high tables, and booths are hard to come by. On this particular day a nice young lady helped me find one.

Lunch today was a PB sandwich, cheezits, an apple, granola bar, and a few chocolate kisses and hugs my hubby snuck into my lunch. It wasn’t like the lunches at the school, but still good and simple.

After lunch, I went up to the 5^th floor, and found our class. My professor came up and we talked for a bit. She, like the others was happy to have me back. Classmates had lots of questions, and were very curious. I would rather people ask than not ask at all.

Two funny experiences on our first day back, and I know people either really love dogs or really dislike dogs. I understand this, but there is no reason to think that my dog is a danger to you. She is highly trained, the worse she would do is lick you to death. LOL One I was getting on an elevator, and a young lady was extremely scared of the dog, she made herself as small as possible in the corner of the elevator as she could. Once her floor came, or maybe not her floor she ran. Another I was walking down the hallway, a person was walking towards me in the same hallway, they see me and Missy, scream, and walk the other direction, or the direction they just came from. On this particular happening, I didn’t get to say anything to the person as they ran away too quickly. I was extremely surprised that no one asked much to pet. And when people would ask what the pups name was, I just said, that I could not tell them. Most were okay with this, as I explained why.

On the way back to the train, Missy did great guiding. The only little issue is that she had to break. I quickly picked it up and went on my way. I didn’t make a big deal about it, as I didn’t want anyone to say anything to me. We got to the train station in a timely matter and I was in one piece. In all honestly Missy did absolutely great for our first day.

Here is where the trouble begins. So the train that we need to get, pulls up, we find the door, no issue there. I am looking for a seat, I totally feel up a few people, how embarrassing *blush*. I don’t do this on purposes, but in order to find a seat I have to feel if someone is sitting there. So I finally ask if there is an open seat. Someone instructs me on where a seat is, I go towards it. I find it and think, oh how great I have a seat all to myself. NOT! It’s a three seater, and there is a gentleman in the window seat. I don’t know this until I almost sit on him, I feel him up a bit, and my dog I am sure licks him. He was all cool about it, but Oy Vey how embarrassing. So by this time the train has taken off, there is a long line of people being me trying to get by to find seats, and the conductor dude is waiting so impatiently for my ticket. I loudly say, please give me a moment to get my dog situated. Missy did not want to go under the seat. I have to work on this. I finally get her into the seat some, give the conductor who was being rude by this time, his stupid ticket so he will go away, and continue to get Missy in under the seat. After a while everyone finds a seat, not before someone says, your being mean to your dog. I was just trying to manipulate her to under the seat, I wasn’t being mean. After several stops we were all situated and resting. I do not understand why people on the train, see me, and just sit there; don’t offer seats, for me and my dog. They all have to spread out, not leave any open seats, and then at the handicapped seats people have to sit in them and won’t get up. It was a bit stressful.

Once at my home station, my hubby and FIL was there to pick us up. We stopped at WA WA for sandwiches. Yum and then went home to eat them. Shortly after dinner, after feeding Missy her dinner, we all went to bed. I think we were in bed at8am.

So that was my first day at school and classes. If you’re wondering, I am behind in all classes and have a lot of work to do to catch up. It will all get done eventually I am sure.

Until tomorrow…. 

Day Number three with my new partner (October 17, 2012)

This day started differently from the others. Hubby had to go work *sad face* so we were up at 7am, normal feed water and break for the pup. Hubby and I had breakfast together. Hubby left for work, and then I started to work on catching up on personal things. Sadly I didn't get much done, as I was so incredibly tired. If I fall asleep in front of the computer I am tired. I did get a few things done. Like for example, I still needed to send Emma's harness back to TSE. I had been putting this off, denial is a great escape. To explain further, I mean that if I still have her harness, she is still working, thus she is still my pup and she never retired. Logically I know this is not true, BTW my heart has not caught up to my brain on this matter. A note about Emma is that she apparently loves her retirement home and very happy. I miss her so much. I also worked on trying to catch up on my blog entries, but for whatever reason blogger would not let me post the entries I had written up. Thus you will see the previous three posts all in one spurt, because I had to have hubby post them for me.

At 1:30pm My MIL came and picked me up to do a bit of shopping. We headed to Target. Surprisingly not many people said much about Missy. Or perhaps I didn't hear them. I had to get a few birthday cards. My son is turning 16 on Sunday. It’s hard for me to even come to a reality that I am that old and that my son is that old. I remember the day he was born, LOL I won't go into that now. We then headed to the Post Office to send the harness off and the card. Missy was very well behaved in both places. It’s harder to figure out how to follow someone in a store, but Missy has done a great job. I have a person talk so that I can hear them a little. If I know where they are, then I can tell Missy where to go. I have vouched to my family and hubby that Missy will go everywhere I go. You’re probably asking why would I not take Missy everywhere I go. I'll explain, with Emma I got out of the habit of taking her when family was taking me or going with me some place. Not because she wasn't needed, but because it was easier not to take her. Maybe this helped that she retired earlier, or maybe it didn't do anything to her retirement, but in my mind I have to think about these things. It is easier for me to take Missy, yes I have to think about others, but Missy is the choice I have made to my independence.

After my shopping trip, I headed home. Yet again, I tried to work on school work, but I again fell asleep in front of the computer. I got home from my shopping trip at 3ish, but then hubby came home around 4:30pm. We then fixed and ate dinner. On this night, hubby had worship team practice. Around 7:30pm we started walking to the church.

Our walk to church certainly was the hardest and most challenging thus far. We started out okay, until we got to the path that goes from our circle to the street. Before it was a true path, but the HOA put dirty on the path, to seed it for grass, so thus to take the path away. In this area lot of people in the area let their dogs do their business in the grass. I am assuming they pick up, but Missy wanted to sniff every single blade of grass on the ground. Getting her back on track was hard, with lots of leave its". I felt like I was very mean to her. So back on our walk, once we got to a curb, she stopped as normal, but then crossing the street; she didn't take me to the curb. So we re-worked it 3 times. At this time, my hearing aids were not working well, the traffic was loud, and then they came apart. I am not sure why we had such issues on this walk, it was dark already, and I knew that I should have waited until a person could do this route with me, the someone from the school, not my hubby. Not that my hubby wasn't a good person to walk with, but it was a challenging walk. So we work through the curb issue and got back on track. This particular sidewalk is very broken up, but Missy steadied down well. So we are walking, and then the sidewalk turns off to the left, and there is a fire hydrant, and Missy takes me to the curb. I almost fall off the curb into the traffic. I re-worked it again with her and so she did well the second time. Shortly after this point we get a cross walk on my right and have to cross the street. At this point there are no more sidewalks, so we go to our country walk. I really dislike this street because in the gutters, there are tons and tons of leaves. Well Missy avoids the leaves like the plague. On the way we did well, it’s only about half a block that we do country work, then we turn right, cross the street that we are walking along, to the corner. We found the corner well, and then we must turn left and find the next curb. From here we walk in a parking lot that is not busy at all. At the beginning of the parking lot part, hubby was leading, and Missy was following. She did very well at following. We did arrive at the church a little late, but made it all in one piece. We have to work on those sidewalkless walks, and on those curbs.

When we got to the church, they were having a marshmallow roast, we navigated around this okay. The pioneer clubs and children’s activities were just wrapping up when we arrived. Missy did very well around all of the children. About 4 different people asked me about Missy name. Missy again is my pup’s online name. I am not giving anyone her name, sorry! Hubby and the worship had their band practice. Missy was not bothered by the singing or the instruments. It was nice to friends, all said they missed me. I missed everyone too. The worship team practice was not long on this night, so we headed home. I will say that the way back home, was much more of a patience tester than the way to church. Again we started off well, Hubby in the lead, walking at a brisk pace. Then we get to the part where I need Missy to find a curb, she did, so then we crossed the parking lot entrance. First try she took me into the street, second again the same, and then she found the curb. A huge huge huge, did I say huge mistake I made with this walk is not taking treats to give Missy to re-enforce curbs. From this curb we follow the left hand side of the street, doing our country work. Again she, Missy did not want to hug the left hand of the street, or be in the gutter, why. Because of the leaves in the gutters. There was quite a bit of traffic on this street for this time of night, so she was taking me into the line of traffic. It’s a wide street but Missy has to learn to hug the left hand side curb. So we finally we get to the street where we have to cross a two lane street. We cross and turn left to go down the sidewalk. So I thought we had passed that same fire hydrant, boy was I mistaken. Instead of going around, instead of taking me to the curb, Missy ran me completely into the hydrant. Oh let’s just say it hurt, I was going at a pretty brisk pace, and then hitting the hydrant at that pace hurt. I have a huge bruise on my right leg, above the knee. I made a huge deal about her running me into this object, and we re-worked it. The second time again she got it, and went around it. Again she did well for the part of the sidewalk that was very uneven and broken up. The next big challenge is the curb crossing the street. First time across she did not take me to the curb, and second time, was the same, and yet again the third was the same. It didn't help that this street that we were crossing was busy with lots of cars. On the fourth time across she took me to both curbs right away. I again made this a big deal, so she was happy. From there the walk was pretty uneventful; we found our path or our cut through to our circle. Before going in for the night, I broke Missy.

After arriving home, we played a bit. Before we could go to bed, we had a few things to do on the computer. Missy fell asleep right away, and when we got up to go to bed, it was hard to wake her. On this night we did not get to bed until after 11pm.

Until tomorrow, our first day of classes, Whoopee! 

Day Number Two with my new partner (October 16, 2012)

This day began completely different than the others. Both hubby and I slept until 7am. Yes you read that correctly, hubby and I. Hubby decided to take off the day to spend with me, to catch up on our time. We both desperately needed it. We took Missy out to break. Then we had breakfast together. Another morning of yummy PB toast with bananas.

I then gave hubby all of his presents. I love buying for my hubby. He is always so happy to get my presents. So first I gave him the game. It’s a wooden game, sort of like Tetris, but its using a wooden board. There are several ways you can play so I showed him what I remembered. We both love games like that stump our brains. The second present I gave him was a big huge coffee mug. It said Long Island NY, on the beach with a black lab puppy. My third present was a beach blanket. Hubby is always saying that he is cold, so I thought a blanket of his own. One of these days I need to just crochet him one. It was nice to just hang out with my hubby for the day.

There are no words to describe how much I missed my hubby while I was gone. It was torture. Shortly after the presents we took Missy out to the park across the street for a nice brisk walk. On this day it was absolutely beautiful out. Sunny, a bit windy, and chilly. So over at the park we walked around the path twice. Once we got close to the pavillion, I gave her the command to go in side. I asked for Missy to find me a seat, and she did. After sitting for a few minutes, walk back around the path in the opposite direction. I also targetted her to the open in the fence where we come and go out. When we headed home, we were in the led. It’s a bit of country work, no sidewalks, and then we turn into our circle. Once we were in our circle, I asked Missy to find our sidewalk, which she did. Once we came in, it was time for lunch.

After lunch hubby started on dinner. We invited his dad over, as SIL headed home for a few days. Hubby made briscit, potatoes, carrots, spinach, and a salad. I cleaned up the house while he prepared dinner. Around 3, I started checking emails and catching up on things I needed to get done. I honestly don’t have much energy for anything these days.

We had dinner at 6pm. It was delicious. And it was nice to have dad over. Missy was on her best behavior, which made me proud. Hubby and I cleaned up and then worked on the computers for a bit longer. At 9pm, we watched the debate on my Iphone. It lasted a lot longer than I think it was suppose to. I won’t discuss my poltical views here.

It was once again one of those nights were I was so tired, I don’t remember much.

Until tomorrow….

Day Number One with my new Partner (October 15, 2012)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was so tired the night before that I don’t remember much. It was so incredibly wonderful to be back in my own bed. As most of the mornings before this one started early, at 6am. Missy slept well, as when I was ready to take her off the tie down she was “thumping” her tail and giving me lots of kisses. Another luxury that I had so missed while away is breakfasts with my hubby. The schools food was great, awesome, and I do miss it. But my Hubby makes great toast with peanut butter and banana. Yum! Missy had no issues relieving on this morning. The only bad part is that it was raining. My SIL took us to the train station and we were off.

I have to remember that Missy doesn’t know everything. So getting on the train was a bit stressful. Of course there are those wonderful helpful sighted folks everywhere, and perhaps I was a little short fused because I was tired. I let them, the sighted people, think they are helping. There is no use in arguing, or hurting their feelings. It’s nice, but I use the train a lot and get on at this stop at least 2 to 3 times a week. So when we got on the train, Missy was great at finding the door, and we found a seat. Now the stressful part was trying to get her into the under seat space. Her harness got stuck, and the train was already moving, and then there were so many wonderful things to sniff. In the end we worked it all out, she got situated under the seat, fell right asleep, stopped sniffing and I relaxed. I guess you could say I relaxed enough that I took a short nap, I was so so so so tired.  Once at our stop we got off no issues what so ever. I had to wait a little bit for my O&M instructor, but she then met us up on the platform.

We made our way to the elevator. Once on the ground level we take a right and walk several blocks to the campus. Now let me say for all those who do not live in Philadelphia, the university campus is in a very urban location. Most of the area around the campus is not safe, and can be a little dangerous. On our way we have to cross two major streets and one Side Street. The sidewalk is also very broken up and uneven. Missy was very calm and not excited at all, considering we were in a new area. It’s like she had been there before. Once on campus we stopped at the first building for the bathrooms. This is the first and last building you come to on campus. We had to find a ramp, and stairs, doors and navigate around tons of students. Missy did all of this like a pro. From there we were on our way. Walking through Anderson and Glatfelter, at least I think that is its name. Past the food venders, across the street to the bell tower court yard, past the bell tower, and then a left at the library. And then on to my building with all of my classes. At every up curb or down curb, I would give a pat, praise, and a treat. Once at the building I go into I targeted her to the door I use, with another treat. The treats I am giving her are just her normal kibble. Once inside the building, we sat down and talked for a while. At this time of the morning there were students everywhere, so her ability to navigate through them is very good. It’s also cute to feel her head go back and forth, from left to right, to decide which is the better way to go.

After relaxing and talking to my O&M instructor for a bit, we headed up to the 5^th floor where 3 out of the 5 classes are. So we have to navigate through several hall ways and get to the elevator. Found those with no issues what so ever. Up on the fifth floor, I had my instructor guide me to a classroom. Name it as such; go back to the elevators by sighted guide. And then have Missy find the classroom. At each time she found the classroom or elevator I would pat, praise, and treat. We did this for two classrooms and then the bathroom. One very interesting thing, Missy is able to generalize. This means that she can find anything because it is that thing. For example in this lesson, there are 4 elevators. Each time we came back into the area with the elevators she found one, not just the same each time. I gave the classrooms the same name but would point into the general direction, and she could find the right one I was speaking about. If I tell her to find a seat, she finds a seat. Not the same one we have sat in before. The reason I say this is interesting is, with Emma, if I said for her to find an elevator, she would find the same one every single time. I tried to work on her finding elevators, but in the long run, she never truly got it. It was the same with seats, trash cans, or anything I gave a name to.

Another cool little trick, I had never been taught to do at any other school, until now. Is in bathrooms, to find “stalls”, to “find the sink or counter”. And if I am at a regular sized stall that could be big enough or perhaps not big enough, on how to get me and Missy inside. Don’t get me wrong all of the other schools, gave us suggestions on how to teach this, but this is the first school where an instructor, because she was also a female, taught this from the beginning. I did teach Emma to do this, but at times it was difficult. So what happens, I put Missy on a long leash, go into the stall, still holding on to the leash. Close the door, making sure the leash goes under the door, lock the door, and then give Missy the “under” command. She sorts of scoots on her tummy under the door. I personally think this is cool. It’s not that I don’t trust my pup outside of the stall, its everyone else I do not trust. Getting out of the stall is not usually an issue. Again I think it helped that I had a female instructor.

After finding all the class rooms on the 5^th floor, we found my economics classroom. This is a bit trickier because it’s a small building, that is much more crowded, with students sitting on the floor, against the wall. So not only do we have to navigate people walking but people sitting along the wall. Oy Vey! I didn’t get to work in this building as much because of all the students in the way or around. I don’t see it as hard to find as the others too.

I also targeted Missy to several bathrooms, to the café, to other outside doors, and to several offices. One in particular office has a statue next to the door. Missy didn’t like that statue at all. I was able to finally get her to ignore it but she kept on looking at it. The hardest part of working her down at my university is where will I relieve her, if she needs to go potty. This will have to be worked out, as we didn’t really find any good place.

We made our way back to the train with no issues. Again at every curb a pat, praise and a treat. The sad fact is that I thought there were a lot of students out when we made our way to my classes, but it was around lunch time, so there were even more out. We made our way up to the train platform and waited for our train home. By this time it was pouring. Getting back on the train was not nearly as stressful. Again we had a bit of trouble getting her under the seat, but yet again she settled down, and fell asleep right away. Not only was Missy tired, but I took another nap on the train.  

Once at my home train station, SIL picked me up. It was cold, dreary, and rainy. I got home, got the Missy girl settled, broken, and I ate lunch. After lunch I laid down for a nap, and I didn’t get up until 7pm for dinner. I was tired. Hubby was tired too; guess all of those nights not sleeping well both caught up to us.

More tomorrow…..

Last Day of Training & Celebration Sunday (October 14, 2012)

My last morning of training, official training, began as it had for the last 3 weeks. Wake at 6am. Feed, water and break the Missy girl at 7am. Breakfast for me at 7:30am. And then we met at 8:30am. On this morning it was hard, very hard to get up. I didn't get to sleep the night before until midnight, and then did not sleep well. I kept on thinking I was going to over sleep my alarm why I would think this, considering I haven't done so the entire 3 weeks, is beyond me. I did a lot of tossing and turning. Every chance I got I was packing. At 8:30am, we all met in the leather lounge, to watch a video about going home. Funny enough I saw this same video at TSE, and this video is from TSE. I didn't mention this before, but when we had our ADA lecture; we watched two videos that the TSE have let the GDF school show for lectures. I love that in the video, it makes the TSE dogs like "super dogs", and they can do no wrong, and are perfect. No guide dog no matter from what school are perfect all of the time. Are dogs are awesome, cute and very smart, but not perfect. After our video, we had about an hour for more packing. By this time I was 99percent packed. At 10:15, we met again for the last time in the leather lounge for our going home lecture. We received our puppy/grad notebooks. Our dog's information, including tags, and signed our ownership or custody forms.
I don't have a rabies tag because apparently Missy was given the shot in VA in February. I have a letter but no tag, so this means I have to call the Vet down there and see if they can send me a tag.
We broke our pups quickly and then my family was there at 11:30am. We left campus without the pup to get lunch. And then back to campus so I could change, and for the celebration. Hubby, FIL, and SIL all came up to partake in the celebration.
At 1pm, I was seated at a table. My puppy raisers came over to talk. 4 members of Missy's puppy raisers came, a Mom, Dad, and two kids. Right off, we talked easily. Pup recognized them, and started giving them kisses. Overall she behaved very well. The family took lots of pictures of Missy.
Around 2pm, there was a presentation with video of all the graduates and pups walking out in the community. We were all served cake and drinks, and continued to talk. It was really cool to talk about Missy when she was a baby, her behaviors, and to know that her family loved her so much. And now she loves me because of that. It was hard not to cry. Around 3, we took more pictures outside. I allowed Missy to say goodbye, and I know this was very hard for the family. I am hoping we can stay in touch. It's really cool how a family can be brought together by a special puppy.
By this time I only had a few last things to throw in my backpack. Missy was very anxious, but this is to be normal. I am sure she could feel the impending change. We, all of the students, gathered in the "gathering room" and gave our instructors their presents. We all pitched in money and got them gift cards. This was the least that we could do for them. If my instructor ever reads this, I say this from the bottom of my heart; you're the best instructor ever! And Thank you for what you do. By this time the family had the car all loaded, and we were ready to go. It felt strange getting in the car with my Missy, and no instructor. I thought there would be more of a formal goodbye, but it was casual.
We got on the road around 4pm. Shortly after driving for a while, Missy got comfortable and was out cold asleep. She was sawing logs, just curled up in the floor of the back seat. We had planned to stop at some point and eat. And just before we got to the Outback in Brooklyn, I fell asleep. We stopped for dinner. It was an interesting dinner. My first with Missy. My first without an instructor. The restaurant had a ton of people in it, and was quite noisy with sports fans. We were seated at a booth, and I was able to back Missy up under the table. She was totally not in the way at all. She actually went to sleep and again sawed more of those logs. She only woke up when the sports fans yelled out. It was a delicious dinner. And I was proud that my Missy girl was so well behaved.
We got back on the road, after it had turned dark, but only after an hour and half, made it home. By the time we got home I was extremely exhausted. I actually do not remember much about that night. I do know we arranged for Missy to be tie down in our bedroom, on her brand new doggie bed. I think that first night I took her out to "break" she did not relieve herself, but I wasn't too worried about that.
Let's just say I slept like a log myself. Tomorrow I am schedule to go into my university and work with my O&M person to learn the campus and how to get to my classes.
Until tomorrow….