July 2012 Snapshot

"I go bottom of the ocean"—that's Miriam's new catchphrase after
plunging into the pool. Although she wears a float vest, her head
dunks for a moment and she seems quite proud of her daring. In other
observations, there could be no limit to the number of popsicles she
would eat if given the opportunity. Also, whenever she sees someone
getting into their car she waves and says "Bye friend!" and when
walking past two people sitting on a bench, she said hi twice. She
also says "Bye house. See you later" every time we leave. Often when
passing a church steeple she says "spiky church".

Caitlin has discovered how to move her feet independently and is now
cruising along furniture and will take a single step without help.
This all started happening four days before turning nine months old.
Her third tooth also arrived so she has one on the top now to add
balance to the two on the bottom, and she's eager to use them; she
shrieks and squawks whenever food is in sight and I'm currently giving
her one or two people-food meals per day.

Joe is scheduled to defend his dissertation later this month. All
formatted, his dissertation is about 120 pages long and has about as
many journal references. That's a wad of work! How do you like my pun?
Joe just took a two-week bridging course to get him ready for work in
the hospital as he'll start third-year medical school next month.

We just returned home from the convention of the National Federation
of the Blind, NFB, in Dallas. We almost didn't go this year, but glad
we made it after all. That's my eleventh. I generally think I've heard
it all, by now, but as usual, I managed to come home with another
useful tid-bit; Some friends showed me how an audiobook player called
a Victor Stream can be used as a kind of audible teleprompter. This
has great potential for slowish braille readers like me for reading
scriptures aloud in Sunday school, giving speeches, and my latest
application, reading books to the kids. I'm looking forward to trying
it out. I've done similar things before using a computer, but this
little audiobook player is more responsive and more easily navigable
and unlike a regular MP3 player, it can convert text to speech. The
gadget has been out for five years now, and I've never given it a
second thought until now. Interesting how that happens. Lorin and
Dean, if you're reading this you're probably saying "I could have told
you that". So now that I've come around, we need to compare notes. PS
my notes will still be in braille.

Lastly, although my post really wasn't headed this way at first, I
feel the urge to acknowledge something more about myself here for
anyone who is still caught reading… This just might be the first post
in several years that would indicate that I have anything to do with
blindness. Yes, I'm blind. The last post I can remember might have
been two years ago either when I talked about my blind brothers or
when I talked about using a cane at the pool when Miriam was Caitlin's
age. If you're looking for an excellent blog that deals more closely
with blindness visit Slate and Stylish at
http://slateandstylish.blogspot.com/ or Making it on the Playground
http://makingitontheplayground.com/. These are both very well-informed
and entertaining. Anyway, the only reason I bring this up is to say
that although there's a place for blogs about blindness in networking
and educating, I feel grateful to note how little significance
blindness has in my life at this point, notwithstanding my diminishing
vision.

Just for the sake of saying so, I can't see much out of my left eye
any more. I'm just able to read 72 point font on my computer screen
out of my right eye, but when I close that eye, the page appears blank
(so it's a good thing I'm using screen-reading software rather than my
eyes). If you'd like a story to illustrate, I was headed to a meeting
at the NFB convention and got onto an elevator. Two seconds after the
doors closed, I heard a little voice next to me say "Hi Mommy". Joe
and Miriam were out riding the hotel elevators and I hadn't recognized
them right in front of me. It was actually a comic moment.

It's difficult for me to articulate the relief and gratitude I feel as
I think of my opportunities, mentors and teachers. My involvement with
the NFB and my attendance at the Louisiana Center for the Blind have
made all the difference in my life. I used to have so many more
worries and so much less confidence. I didn't even used braille or a
cane, which is a predicament that baffles me now. I'm so grateful to
have crossed those bridges already and be confident and effective in
my alternative skills so that my energy is not being consumed by
blindness and I can just get down to the business of living.

This is reality. I don't spend my life hoping for a cure. I don't
think about blindness even on a weekly basis although I remember some
of the things that used to tug at me daily despite my native optimism.

They say hindsight is 20/20 and looking back I was doing okay, but
it's nothing compared to the freedom I feel now. There's nothing like
knowing that even if in the likely event that I'll loose all my vision
at some point, it could even happen without me noticing because life
just goes on, and blindness is just darn annoying, but that's all it
is. To clarify, that's all it is given the great training and
opportunities I've been blessed to have been given.

I hope I don't sound over-zealous or over-emotional or just plain over the top.

Happy Independence Day. It feels great to be alive and free. My thanks
to those military and civilian, blind and sighted alike, who secure my
freedom.