Notes to Myself

Chapter 1

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Setting Up the Mission

Chapter 2

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Message Placed by the Swan

Chapter 3

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Royal Summons

Chapter 4

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Answer to My First Set of Questions

Chapter 5

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Confrontation

Chapter 6

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Questions About the Democracy of Rock and Roll

Chapter 7

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Heading South

Chapter 8

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Aboard the As Yet Unnamed or Looked Up Ride

Chapter 9

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ronnie and Star are Reunited

Chapter 10

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Return to Capital City!

Chapter 11

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Now What

License

Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The fiction, writing, and original content on this site — including all works set in the Star Runner Adventures universe, the characters of Star Runner and Ronnie Camberwell, and all associated worldbuilding — is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

You are free to share and adapt this material for non-commercial purposes, provided you give appropriate credit, link to the license, and distribute any derivative works under the same license.

Journal Entry

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 10:18:00 +0000

I have been doing a lot of work with Emacs and moving my published writing from github to my local network on my pi4b. As a result, I haven’t been working much on my novel. So I thought I would start thinking aloud via these journal entries since they are now literally notes to myself.

I’ve never been much for world building. My Star Runner Universe has evolved. The world continues to make sense more or less. I wandered a bit in the region of space controlled by the old races and I may revisit that at some point, but I think this new group of star systems has promise.

testing

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 19:35:00 +0000

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Journal Entry

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:06:00 +0000

I have been working to get org-static-blog working correctly with my new set up.

Previously, I had my local copy at the root of my user directory. Since org-static-blog can’t create pages and neither Gemini or Claude could write an emacs function to create a page, I decided to move the local blog into the directory structure which I use for pushing the content to github.

I finally got the links sorted out. It was understanding that the links formed the basis for github.io, not my local situation. So far, so good.

What Ever Happened to Hulu

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:12:00 +0000

Our friend Hulu went off to the Paws Forward program in prison. She barked for 5 minutes straight when she first arrived. We were hopeful she would settle in.

Wrong!

The prisoners found Hulu to be smart and willing to be trained, but she did bark–a definite no-no–and she pulled. They described her behavior as aggressive. I might characterize it as enthusiastic. But she’s a strong dog and almost pulled an inmate off his feet.

Journal Entry

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 19:25:00 +0000

My experiment with ProtonDrive has begged the question: Which files should I save?

An easy answer is, of course, all of them. Although likely possible, I am discovering that saving every file is a lot like saving every object in my house. Every time I have moved–and I’ve moved a lot–I try to get rid of things. So maybe every time I set up a new place to store files, I should do the same.

Journal Entry

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 19:56:00 +0000

Am I ready for my daily 250 words?

I run a function when I start writing to set my baseline of zero words so that another function can count them. The joy of emacs! But I don’t know if I’m ready to write them tonight.

Today is not a spiritual writing day. It’s rainy here and not a good day to go outside. Quiet dreary.

So I settled down to the pi to find an alternative to Google Drive, iCloud Drive and OneDrive for my collection of text files.

Journal Entry

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 16:03:00 +0000

I don’t think Ihave the courage to pray Psalm 26 myself though I hear it read every fifth of the month at morning prayer in the 30-day cycle. I don’t think I can meet its claims of righteousness.

What caught my attention this morning was verse 7:

Singing aloud a song of thanksgiving\ and recounting all your wonderful deeds.

Obviously, This is not a whole sentence. It is set in the context of worship.

Journal Entry

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 16:30:00 +0000

Wednesday is the day I do Morning Prayer as a reading circle and we do the 7-week psalm cycle rather than the 30-day one. So I will choose two verses from Jeremiah. I read it last night with a different reading circle.

Be appalled, O heavens, at this;\ be shocked; be utterly desolate, says the Lord,\ for my people have have committed two evils:\ they have forsaken me,\ the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves,\ cracked cisterns that can hold no Water.

Journal Entry

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:10:00 +0000

My boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;\ I have a goodly heritage.

It’s time for me to write about this verse.

It, or similar words, are enscribed on the sun dial in front of the library where I went to seminary. It was understood to be affirmation for the pastor’s life.

Since I never received a call or was ordained in this denomination, I have always struggled with this verse.

Journal Entry

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 15:15:00 +0000

I have been mulling over the last bit of Zephaniah 3:15.

The Lord is in your midst, You shall see evil/harm/disaster no more.

This is an amalgamation of several translations all of which have their nuances of meaning. The Hebrew word is ra’ah as in the tree of tov (good) and ra’ah. But ra’ah embraces more meaning than evil.

Zephaniah 3:15 is a promise, not necessarily a reflection of the current state of affairs. Someday this will be true.

Getting the Hang of I38

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Jude

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 09:45:00 +0000

Today’s New Testament lesson is from the book of Jude, not a particularly well read or well liked book in the NT.

Since I have been listening to Morning and sometimes Evening Prayer, my engagement with all Scripture has increased. Over and over again the critiques of the world as it is sound very familiar. This can be interpreted as depressing–the rich and powerful are still behaving badly. On the other hand, it helps. I am not living in a unique time. This has always been true.

Advent

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Advent is about darkness, about living in darkness, about waiting for the light in the darkness. The dark is an uncomfortable place to be, especially in winter. The nights are cold. The sun’s rays in the daytime do not warm but only highlight the overwhelming presence of the dark. The nights grow ever longer until the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. Then there is light, the light that shines in the darkness. The light the darkness cannot overcome. The light that lights everyone, the light of life. But I am getting ahead of myself. Advent is about darkness, about living in darkness, about waiting for the light in the darkness.

I'm not the only one who can't write elisp

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 10:35:00 +0000

I’ve been using Copilot to help with Elisp. Unfortunately, Copilot isn’t very good at writing code. It writes a function. I incorporate it into my ~~init.el~~ file and run it. It fails. I go back to Copilot and it explains the error and gives me new code. Rince and repeat. Over and over again!

When I worked for IBM, some people said it stood for “It’s better manually.” I think some people are coming to that conclusion when writing code. It’s better to do it yourself!

A Visit with Hulu

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 15:01:00 +0000

Today we went on the bus to visit our friends Sara and Hulu.

Hulu is going to stay a while with Sara. We thought she might have to go to the prison program right away, but it has been decided that she needs to stay outside for a while longer.

We took a short walk around the neighborhood for practice. Nina was working on curbs and ramps, lining herself up properly and keeping me safe. Hulu was working on walking beside Sara and not being distracted by blowing leaves and noisy school children. She had to walk on a metal grate. Nina already knew this device and made a point of us going around it.

Deploying My Blog

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 15:18:00 +0000

I can read simple bash scripts, but I needed Copilot to design one that is more complicated.

Using Flyspell with Emacspeak

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 15:37:00 +0000

*** The Problem

I didn’t have a great set up for spellchecking in Emacs. Ispell works, but often there are too many choices and Emacspeak does not read them out. So I investigated Flyspell and now I have a working solution.

*** The Hook

I now have flyspell working in all text and text-derived buffers by adding this hook:

(add-hook ’text-mode-hook ‘flyspell-mode)

This can be disabled in specific circumstances if needed but this is beyond the scope of this article.

Playing in the Water

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 15:16:00 +0000

Hulu has discovered the fun of splashing the water in the community water bowl with her front paws. It causes much human excitement and a tsunami in the dining room. The men at the prison are going to have to break her of this habit. You can’t tell a guide dog user “Your new dog will flood the area where you put her bowl.”

Nina is unsure about water. This summer we introduced her to a wading pool. She will jump into it, bite the water, but she is not keen on sitting down and refuses to lay in the water.

Dog News

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 21:13:00 +0000

Today we learned that our new friend, Hulu, will be leaving us sooner than we expected. Next week she is going off for a several month stint in a medium security prison where the men will drill her on her commands. Nina went there, too.

We also learned that Therman celebrated his birthday with 11 other dogs at the school for the blind on the west coast. Therman was raised to be a guide dog, but he is too easily distracted by other dogs when he was in harness. Therman is both Nina’s half brother–they have the same father–and her cousin since their mothers are sisters. Therman looked very happy with his dog school friends. They were all sporting birthday gear.

Adding Local Variables

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 15:15:00 +0000

I am setting up my blog with[[https:/github.combastibe/org-static-blog][org-static-blog]] which requires me to define a number of variables. The best way to do this is using ~~.dir-locals.el~~.

Not knowing how to code in ~~elisp~~ I tried to do this by hand with disasterous results.

I next turned to our new friends Gemini, CoPilot and ChatGPT. This was better, but by no means perfect.

I went back to the Internet and did some searches. Yay! There’s a command to add variables to the ~~.dir-locals.el~~ file. It keeps track of all the parenthesies. You invoke it with m-x add-direct-local-variable I think you need a file called ~.dir-locals.el in the directory already. You certainly need to be in that directory before executing the command.

Caitlin: Great Dog, Loyal Friend and Partner in Ministry: A Tribute

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Note: I must have written this some time in July, 2006 before I had a regular blog. but it seems appropriate for me to post this on the 33-year anniversary of her birth.

The Time – January 4, 1994 - July 10, 2006
The Place – Everywhere I went
The Situation – Working together, my [[https://seeing.org][Seeing Eye dog]] and me
My Spirituality – God watch over my dog and me.

*** First Meeting

Meeting Hulu

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 15:29:00 +0000

We met Hulu today. Nina and I got off the bus and went to the car. Hulu was waiting in the passenger footwell. Nina got into the back. Immediately Nina and Hulu met each other over the console. It took Sara and I a little bit to get both girls settled in their respective places.

We drove to the coffee shop. Although the temps were in the 50s, we sat outside by the fire pit. It was too noisy inside. The dogs behaved themselves though Hulu needed a lot of encouragement to be still. She is still learning.

Looking Forward to Meeting Hulu

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 10:59:00 +0000

I am looking forward to meeting Hulu. She is a five-month black Lab who is in training to become a guide dog. I am certain Nina will have fun playing with her.

Labor Day 2025

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 11:59:00 +0000

On Labor Day we went to [[https:/awealthofnature.orgparksdoctors-park][Doctor’s Park]]. We had a lovely time.

I brought my WFPB lunch while the others ate sandwiches.–pub

Sending Mail

Sun, 17 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

***Narrative

You can skip this part if you only want to know how to get sending mail working on your pi.

There was a person who contributed to Hacker Public News (I think they used a fictional character’s name) who once wrote that all instructions on the Internet had incorrector missing information in their tutorials. I certainly have found this to be true in this extended saga.

In my physical space, I have a pi at a computer stand on one side of the room and a ChromeBook on the other. I did a lot of walking back and forth. I use the ChromeBook to search the Internet and copy items of interest. Now when I search, I always get an AI overview. In general, I find these overviews to give me the information I need, but not this time. The information was often outdated or incorrect.

10 Universal Lessons

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I have no idea where these notes come from but they may come from Zen study.

internal goal or need that is in some way a derivative of one of the following ten universal lessons:

Forgiveness: of self or of others
Love: includes self-love, family love, romantic love
Acceptance: of self, of circumstances, of reality
Faith: in oneself, in others, in the world, in God
Fear: overcoming it, conquering it, finding courage
Trust: in oneself, in others, in the unknown
Survival: including the will to live
Selflessness: including sacrifice, altruism, heroism, and overcoming greed
Responsibility: including duty, standing up for a cause, accepting one’s destiny
Redemption: including atonement, accepting blame, remorse, and salvation

Now This is Sad

Fri, 13 Aug 2021 21:32:00 +0000

I have worked steadily for a number of days trying to get =ablog= to work. I followed several tutorials, spent a long time on [[https://readthedocs.io][readthedocs.io]] and almost had it. But then I wanted to change a little here and a little there and well, I never could get it to work again.

Now this is probably not =ablog’s= fault. I don’t understand =Sphinx= and I’m a little shaky with restructured text, but I can get [[https://jupyter-book.org][Jupyter Book]] to work so I don’t understand what happened here. It looked so simple!

A Long Morning Walk with Nick

Fri, 09 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Nick, my Seeing Eye dog, and I took a walk this morning.

Now I know that taking a walk with your dog is not a novel experience for any dog owner. What was significant about this walk was that it took place immediately after my breakfast and before my exercise class at the senior center.

Normally I would have listened to my podcast app while sucking down at least one large cup of coffee. Instead, I skipped my morning coffee and got walking.

Lion and Lamb

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I’m proud to be Celtic today, but then I’m proud to be Celtic every day.

It was incredibly warm today. I wore a sweatshirt outside and was too hot.

We took a very long walk with panting and everything. We went to Regent Street via the Arbor item. Dogs and their people were everywhere and all the dogs misbehaved. I guess they are thinking it has been a long winter, too.

Rainy Day

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been very warm here. It won’t last, of course. Much of the snow has melted. There are large expanses of water to walk through. Elwood and I have been able to take some long walks. We’ve gotten very wet. yesterday i was able to go out only in a sweatshirt. But today it rained and we did not go out. Elwood was very annoyed with me. I’ve been annoyed with my computer so we haven’t been good company for each other.

Up and Up

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Another increase today. The rent will go up; the Internet Service Provider cost went up and now the coop delivery has tripled in price. It is to make the service almost profitable according to coop bylaws. Nevertheless, it wipes out the discount I have been receiving. Nevertheless, the coop folk are so great to deal with. I was informed of the change and the new delivery person read the letter in its entirety.

Random Thoughts

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The plane that crashed near Buffalo … that was the run I made to and from the Seeing Eye re Elwood. I think it was Continental and that sort of plane. Scary and sad.The women made cheese yesterday at C’s house. Elwood lost his bone and we had to find it for him. We made mozzarella and marzipan. Marscarpone is made with either light cream or half-and-half. The half-and-half version is far too rich for me.I got the prayers done. I had one day where I made good progress and then had to be fill in the gaps for a day or two. Glad that’s done.I was quite amazed. I was asked to do the pastoral prayer Sunday. I realized I wasn’t sure what the visuals were about that, what the space looked like, etc. The service just flows and I don’t analyze it when I’m following where it leads. I raised the question with my Bible study group since I figured that they had the info. They were quite touched and honored I had asked them. After wards we went over the space so all should be well for Sunday.We had a good time last weekend celebrating Brian’s birthday.It’s been warm but dreary here. Yes, you can put your lined Crocs through the washing machine. They’re drying now. I don’t know how long that will take. They took quite a beating on the mud luscious, puddle wonderful walk to and from the library.

Cheese making

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Today is a school holiday. My friends, their niece and their cousin’s wife came to make cheese. We made two kinds of cheese, mozzarella and lemon cheese. It was quite exciting. We even had milk from a local dairy 20 miles north of Madison. We will visit one day as their is an artisan cheese maker nearby.

When the cheese making was done, we went to Ian’s for pizza.Although Ian’s can make you a pie, they typically sell by the slice and have 20 varieties to choose from. They are happy to run them down for you as you move around the display area. Combinations of vegetables, meats and fruit capped by their best-seller: macaroni and cheese pizza. This is a white pizza with elbow macaronis. I had a slice of this and a spinach-roasted pepper-and-portobella mushroom slice. This latter was a bit wet and I would choose something else another time. The cousin met us there for lunch.

Good Move

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I found out people did not get out of the church meeting until 3:30. Fortunately, they served lunch.

Library Journey

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood and I were finally able to run an errand outside by ourselves. In fact, I got sweaty on the way home.

I needed to return some books to the library. the library has a wonderful system whereby I could opt in to receive email notices when books are due. In fact, i had three to return so off we went this morning.

There’s a lot of dry pavement out there but also a lot of slush and some uncleared places. There is still a high snowbank with a narrow opening at one intersection.

Address

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Obama invoked that understanding of patriotism that was instilled me long ago. Perhaps it was living in central NJ. Perhaps it was the Little Maid books. Perhaps it was paul Revere and visiting Concord, MA.

Sacrifice of our ancestors: America’s story is my story even if my ancestors were still in Europe.

The re-making of America: Mother read Making of America. The story goes on.

Aritha Franklin

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Good to hear her sing.

Civil Rights

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Finestein reminds me I was in grade school during Selma.

Elizabeth Alexander

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I will have to hear/read this poem to fully grasp it.

Elwood says

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

don’t forget dogs need to go out. It’s very cold out there. K was right to stall.

Home

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I’m home because K and I agreed that inaugural coverage was more important than freezing on Monroe Strdet. We’ve re-re-scheduled for Thursday when it’s supposed to be in the 30s–a definite heat wave.

Inauguration

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I wanted to use the SA Mobile Network connection to ACB Radio and ABC TV. It started out badly with someone rambling so I switched to Democracy Now. Alice Walker is cohosting with Amy. I think the last and first Inauguration I paid so much attention to was JFK’s. We had the day off from school because of the snow.

Joseph Lowrie

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Wow! A mini sermon. Interesting that both he and Warren focused on forgiveness. Lowrie injected humor and stuck to God’s rule being preeminent.

lastfm

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

has a different version of The Weavers singing this title.

Obama

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Glad he used his full name. It’s a good name. And glad, too, he messed up the oath of office. We’re all human.

Rick Warren

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

male-oriented. Sounded very America-focused, uncomfortably so. Didn’t anyone join him in the Lord’s Prayer? That’s ugly. I liked the way he said, in the name of the one who changed my life.

Running Late

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Inauguration running late as usual.

Synphonic Piece

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This didn’t reach me.

The Times

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

and I lived to see it.

Twitter

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Twitter seems to be overwhelmed.

Vice President

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Isn’t it odd that the vice president gets sworn in first? If you’re building to a climax, it’s right, but isn’t the swearing in of the president more important?

Walker

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

More feminine language. Yes. We can live with this? Alice, please. Don’t waffle.

Wasn't That A Time

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Obama was talking about Valley Forge when he talked about the blood in the snow? And the currents: crossing the Delaware. And then marching down the road in front of my house–though it wasn’t there at the time.

Why

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I think this is a historic moment. I’m curious what Rick Warren will say for the invocation, the inaugural address, of course, and Lowrie’s benediction. I think I’ve read some of Lowrie’s stuff. A thoughtful man.

Women

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This is cool. 2 women anchoring the coverage.

On Bones and Things

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood arrived on my lap to say it was almost 8 o’clock. Time to go out. So we did.

It has been snowing. Not much you understand. I was wearing my crocs, of course, klogs, lined but still the holes on top can take in snow and there’s not a whole lot of insolation.

Well, Elwood did his thing and then decided to sniff. New snow. Much snuffling sounds. Where is the stoop?

Yesterday's High

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday’s high was -2. The low was -15. This does not include windchills.

Baby, It's Cold out There

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This is our current weather report:Forecast as of 3:41 PM CST on January 14, 2009Wind chill warning in effect until 12 PM CST Friday…Tonight Turning bitterly cold. Mostly clear. Lows around 19 below. Northwest winds 10 to 15 miles per hour. Wind chill readings 34 below to 44 below zero.

Bible Study

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Bible study is cancelled because of the cold. Because the dinner was already made, we are gathering to eat and share.

Cabin Fever

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood and I are suffering from cabin fever. Yesterday the temp went up but the wind chills are fierce. Some light snow overnight and thru the day. I didn’t get to the vacuuming so still have it to do. Sadly, Jott is going paid only so i deleted my account. I enjoyed listening to feeds and doing updates from the phone. Maybe I’ll get into txt msging after all. The dealer who sold me the Trekker Breeze suggested I get an extended life battery for the xv6700 cell phone. He has this model on Verizon and has had no problems. The battery arrived yesterday with a new back for the phone. It seems to get a better signal in the low signal area of the apartment though it does not increase the signal in the better areas. It’s supposed to last longer, too. I’m hoping this resolves some of my cell phone issues.

Doing computer stuff...

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Doing computer stuff today, and oh dear vacuuming.

Doings Today

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Today Elwood went to Pet Smart for his quarterly top dog treatment. I went to the cosmetology department at MATC for a pedicure, manicure, eyebrow waxing
and hair cut. This is a good plan. I will have the same person cut my hair next time which is good because we are trying to straighten everything out from some poor hair cuts previously. I get to listen in on what the instructors tell the student and who knows, maybe I can learn something to tell another operator. I’m hoping the instructors learn my hair. I was also able to get Elwood a new bone and his food on sale as well as get a regular customer discount.

Forecast Today

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

High 2. Snow tonight 2-4 inches. 2 fell yesterday.

Hardly below zero. We'll...

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Hardly below zero. We’ll be in the deep freeze until Saturday. So we are staying in.

Miscellaneous Notes for January 11

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I brought my netbook to Sunday school today. I think it will be helpful to review notes and look up some things on my computer.

It will get very cold here starting Tuesday. Tomorrow we run errands. Willie Street is being cleared of snow so people are advised to stay away. I hope to mark some landmarks and maybe send a few tweets from the phone as I go around town.

I just take Ellwood...

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I just took Elwood out. He jumped onto my lap between me and the netbook. So I unplugged it and set it on his back. He jumped off.

(I think was an early program to record and transform your voice to text. Lots of errors I’ve corrected on September, 27, 2025. This little post made me smile. I’m sure I tried to type while the computer was on Elwood’s back as a joke.)

Trekker Breeze

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I took a walk Thursday afternoon for exercise. With the Trekker Breeze I can record the route and then reuse it. The advantage of doing this is that the Breeze can then give me directions the next time and the time after that. I walk , turn west, walk north past my side entrance to the street where I can turn west again.

Here’s the frustrating element of my unit and its route creation. It deleted going south and coming back north. It thought I was backtracking and that therefore it was unnecessary to do. The revised route has me starting out north to the T intersection along the top of the T and crossing to get to the stem of the T. I could do it that way. I don’t because there isn’t a light at the T intersection and the street I am crossing has the right of way. There is a stop sign as I have outlined the way I actually walked. I cannot continue west but have to “backtrack” because of construction. I could do the T intersection crossing today because the Dean Clinic is closed and there is not a lot of traffic. I would have to landmark the crossing to find it.

Weather

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The earlier forecast I heard indicated it would be snowing this morning but it wasn’t when we went out. According to the weather report, it is snowing lightly now and the accumulation will be south of madison. We’ll see.

In looking thru the forecast, it said it would be warmer Sunday–only a low overnight of 14. Tonight it could get down to 2.

I have never thought of 14 as being especially warm.

Happy Birthday, Elwood!

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Today is Elwood’s 4th birthday. He was sung to last night at church and greeted this morning from St. Luke’s Bible study. His birthday gift was unintentional. I changed clothes quickly last night before church and dropped them on the floor. Elwood found jeans and a sweatshirt when he came home and curled himself up on them. He was still there this morning. Such love. This was not his style when I first met him.

More Adventures

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Not to be daunted, we went out again today and went to the Post Office. This is a very confusing place. It was a former A&P from what I understand. Lots of stations, people, and automatic doors. One difficulty is getting outside again. You have to go to the out for the door to open. Dogs expect to go out the door they came in.

It was leaving the Post office that proved to be a challenge for Elwood–or more to the point, getting back on the sidewalk. He made a grand tour of the parking lot and we had a nice chat with a man from Australia from his accent back at the Post office. Eventually, we got back on track and went off to the library to return a book and pick up another book. We has some miscommunication about what a clear sidewalk is and about ice and not going into the street. I tend to be unreasonable if I think there is a possibility about going out into the street and Elwood maintains that icy sidewalks are not what he considers suitable for walking. I try to make up for my dis stress by congratulating him on all good work just as enthusiastically as I fussed about staying on the sidewalk. There is one area he likes to tramp through the snow coming back. I don’t know what he is avoiding. I of course sink down further in the snow than he does.

The Women of Madison

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Happy New Year to everyone!

I haven’t posted for a while. Life is like that.

The kids were here Christmas Eve. We went to church together. Brian thought there was a lot of singing. If you wanted a service with lots of singing, this was it. A very good service for people who are not necessarily “into” church or who may think differently than you about church. It had singing, candle lighting, kids and the Christmas story as well as a play about how the Christmas story characters were just ordinary people like us.

Saturday Afternoon

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The groceries arrived today. They could not be delivered yesterday because of the snowstorm. It is snowing again today and is supposed to get very, very cold. A young man came and was very helpful. The woman at the coop was also very helpful. She is sensible. When one kind of potatoes was not available, she substituted another working under the assumption I would need them. If I did’t want these more expensive potatoes, I could return them. I had asked that one kind of soy milk be separated in a different bag from the other kind of soy milk. That was done. Of course one always has to figure out the bulk items and which bottle is which–salsa or salad dressing? The salad dressing came in a bottle I would have identified as Worcestershire sauce or the like but since I didn’t order that, it must be the salad dressing. I’m still guessing with items like garlic and celery–how many pounds or ounces to order. The powdered vanilla has that slightly metallic smell to it.

On Snow

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Sunday we went Christmas caroling. It was a lot of driving as we visited shut-ins. It was fun singing. Also, I made a pit stop and was told it was just a room. I thought it was your typical unisex bathroom. No. It turned out this room led into another and then from there into another hallway. Elwood left and was returned. If one had wanted privacy, both doors needed to be closed?

First Annual Cookie Bake

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I am credited with initiating the First Annual Cookie Bake of Melanie’s relatives. A good time was had by all and we also made it a cookie exchange. I baked bread now that I have mastered the bread machine and made the chicken stock for the soup we had for lunch. Elwood and the house’s dog are not on good terms, but they managed to survive each other. Elwood lost his bone at J.’s and of curse, he couldn’t find it and neither could we. It will surface and be brought back Christmas Eve–I hope. when we arrived back here in Madison, we went to the local taqueria, a word meaning taco shop or restaurant. The kids were very pleased and ordered all sorts of things including a cactus casserole. The cactus was pickled. I had a dish served on a hominy-based tortilla with vegetables and cheese. Tomorrow is church and Christmas caroling in the afternoon.

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I’m writing this from Glendale having come here on the bus yesterday. Tomorrow is our cookie bake. It turns out I am making the base for the Italian wedding soup for lunch. I also have to see if I can still make cookies.

I understand there is a big snowstorm on the east coast. We have had snow, too and it is very, very cold.

Wednesday we went to the library. It was the first clear day in a while. I wanted to get a book before it got sent back to its originating library and I had several to return. I also thought it would get us out.

In My Lap

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I was working on my lap top and it was literally in my lap. Along came Elwood. He started to climb onto my lap, bone and all.

“Hey,” I said, “there’s no room. I can’t have a dog and a computer on my lap.”

He kept coming, proving that indeed I could have both a dog and a computer on my lap. I explained that the object was not to push the laptop off my lap. I think Elwood disagreed.

Washington island Hotel

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

There is a hotel on Washington Island, Wisconsin. You can only get onto the island by ferry. Why am I telling you thiss? Because I went with melanie and J. to the Washington Island Coffee Shop which is a few blocks from my house. I didn’t know it was there until recently. The office manager clued me into this and we will be going over the route on Monday. However, today Melanie and J. came to Madison on their way to a “romantic” weekend in Dodgeville. I think this is where land’s End is located. If not, the town has a similar name. The coffee shop adjoins a knitting store. The restaurant is large and airy and in good weather, you can sit outside overlooking a park. Today it was sleeting when we went there and we were all quite cold and wet. I didn’t have gloves. Melanie didn’t have a scarf. We had lunch–pheasant quiche, broccoli and cheese soup, an autumn salad with apples and pumpkin seeds, a pickle and such sandwich. Those were our choices along with some other things. And of course, coffee. Just wonderful and delicious and a great beginning to a get-away weekend. The food is from the Washington island Hotel and Culinary School–fresh baked bread and locally grown produce where available and Fair Trade coffee. Pricey, too, but well worth it.

Out and About

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Well, I’m over my cold. it was certainly nasty. Elwood was irritated that we didn’t go anywhere.

We’ve had 2 mobility lessons and we’ll be having our final lesson next week. Elwood is still resisting the library run but I have a much better feel for it. I’ve been picking up cassette books, not my favorite way of reading anymore, but the library has a lot of books on cassette. i have my bom box and the player from the library for the blind. Unfortunately, the tapes have a lot of background noise on them, the book itself either slightly ahead of slightly behind which makes listening a challenge though doable. I just finished a biography ofDorothy L. Sayers which was supposed to be complimentary but I decided she wasn’t terribly likable though her friends found her generous and funny. It is so easy to request books, now that I know how to do the search, that I’m afraid I will always have stacks and stacks of books. Today we did some fun. We learned where several cool eateries in our area are. I had breakfast at Curve. Curve is about six or seven blocks away, with a major street crossing and the only audible signal in my area. We traipsed off and found the place all right. When I walked in, I realized the joint was jumping. I had gone after what I judged to be prime breakfast time. But then again, today and tomorrow is teacher’s convention and school is closed. The women and children were at the tables. The men and I sat at the counter. I walked in and stood against the wall, not sure how to proceed. A man at the counter directed me to a seat. The counter man, and wait staff, cashier, et al asked if I wanted coffee. There was a great place for Elwood under the counter. I ordered eggs. “Wheat toast?” the man asked. It must be Madison. And that’s what came, just 2 eggs and two pieces of toast. The hard part was getting him to slow down enough to pay. The man to my left ate and left and another man came who didn’t even realize he was sitting next to a dog. He flagged the counter man down and eventually, I paid and could leave. I’lll definitely go back. There’s a crew of regulars. We also stopped at the hardware store to pick up some CFL light bulbs. The counter is at the door so you just say what you want and that’s that. I worked with Melanie and with the office manager here at the apartment to learn the way to the polls. It’s across the audible signal street and down 3 blocks. I can’t get inside the building to scope it out but assume building will be open on Tuesday and that there’ll be enough people around that I will get to where I’m going. I had a great visit with J. and Melanie. We went to Lazy Jane’s which is downtown. It’s in a house. You walk in, give your order, lots of tofu stuff and then wait for your name to be bawled throughout the house. it must be madison–cream, 2% milk or soy milk for your coffee. We sat upstairs and Melanie fetched our food when called. You stack your tray and leave when done. We stopped by the coop and St. Vinnie’s. They were having their bicycle clearance sale. The bikes are in the basement and apparently at the end of October they close it for the winter. The bikes were 75% off. it turns out my storm windows were put on backwards, but that has been fixed. A warm day today. Don’t know how long this will last. It was freezing cold Monday with a few snow flurries. I haven’t been to the Wednesday night group for 2 weeks. I was sick the first week and my driver was sick yesterday. To be continued. Tomorrow Elwood and I need to go back to the library and hopefully I have the documentation to get him a bath. They needed his medical records, well, the rabies shot info. His tag says 20 04 which doesn’t mean he got the shot in 2004. He wasn’t born until 2005. Nanowrimo starts Saturday.

on Pumpkins and Things

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

On Friday I was able to go to an apple orchard which had many varieties of airloom apples. I bought some Harolds and Prairie Spy. I wondered if Prairie Spy are related to Northern Spy, but the woman didn’t know. We talked about how people from new jersey long for Stamin Winesap apples but no one outside of new Jersey has ever heard of them. I also bought a pumpkin with a very nice stem to sit on the table.

What Kind of Radio Station

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Someone asked about Pacifica Radio. I would characterize it as leftist. What interests me about Madison’s station is that it is mostly volunteer and has lots of local programming and announcements. The Socialists are having a pot luck and a program. Radio shows are developed by collectives. Want to join? Here are the openings we have. One of the premiums for their pledge drives is Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, about disasterous capitalism. I checked. It’s over 500 pages and available in audio in an abridged format–9 hours. The local library has 2 copies of the cd set. I thought I would check it out. I’m patron 34 on the waiting list. This doesn’t include who’s reading the printed text.

Pacifica Radio

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Just today I was thinking, “Too bad I don’t have access to pacifica radio. I want something really out there.” In switching my radio from A.M. to F.M. and finding the NPR station I found BBC on the hour and started listening. A Madison station have a fund drive. Oh, my! It’s community radio; it’s Pacifica. And it’s everything I love about Pacifica–irreverent and smart-alecky and they have a labor news segment, a woman’s news segment and every kind of music you can think of. Once a week they have a 2-hour show in Mong. Democracy Now airs here so I’ll get to check it out after hearing an interview on On The Media. This is one of the reasons I moved to madison, to get some real local flavor. Who would think Pacifica would be here. Just listening to the books they are giving away for becoming a member could be worth the price of admission. A great line: Free Speech Ain’t Cheap. And their tea-shirts are union made.

How It Went

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

It only took 3 tries and checking the documentation for the correct email address. I was close, but computers are stuck on exact.

Taize and Other Ventures

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I did an emailed post so let’s see how this goes.

Yesterday I attended a sort of Taize service at church. I say sort of because it was day 1 of an experiment. I think we were in what some folks would call the chancel but is not called that in a Baptist church. We were where the choir sits, near the piano. Around us people were getting ready for the multi media youth service. Everyone runs late. This experiment will be live for 3 months on the 1st Sunday of the month. You see how confused all this is. We did some Taize singing with some Scripture and some prayer. It lasted half an hour. The pianist doesn’t want to play the chants repetitively. Twice and he wants to move on. Singing some in Latin, which he did, blew the other folks away. Fortunately, it was one of the Latin ones I knew so could join him. When we got all done, and we were giving feedback, I said, “I want a kyrie elaison.”" I also discovered the others think of prayer as for individuals while I was contributing for this and for this and for this. What can I say? I’ve hung out with litanies for a long time. Anyway, several more people expressed interest in the service. I ride with the leader and we talked if another time would work for the group though maybe next month more will be interested. It was a good contrast to the youth service.

BRRR

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

As I write this, it is 48 degrees and windy. Fortunately, the heat is on and the talking thermostat is installed and working well. it was quite a shock to listen to the Brewers game today with the game time temperature in Philadelphia at 72. I think it was 49 here.

Went off to church for dinner, discussion and Bible study. Still getting to know people. They are patient with me and work hard to identify themselves which is very nice. Elwood was very restless. He doesn’t like a cold floor on which to lay down and Bible study ran long. He wanted to go home.

No Wonder

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

No wonder I felt chilly this morning. It is currently 42 with a wind chill of 35. I only wore a fleece outside. The winter Crocs and socks work very well.

A.M. Radio

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been using the FM tuner in my Iriver mp3 player to listen to my NPR station. In Madison, I get Wisconsin Public Radio so there’s little local news but some state news. It’s not a really powerful radio. I had my boombox sitting on the work station which wasn’t good for reception. I brought it into the dining room but it wouldn’t work. The batteries were dead. I finally checked it out in the bedroom and the radio worked if plugged in. I brought it back to the dining room. No soap. On a hunch, I threw the switch in the living room. Voila. This particular socket is controlled by the switch. Now the radio is working fine and the Brewers’ game is on. It’s a Milwaukee station. Two stations away the same game is playing out of Chicago. Not looking good for the Brewers in the 3rd inning.

Herding Cats

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

You would think it would be pretty straight forward to check in with 2 kids to determine their schedules so their grandparents could see everyone when they visit in Wisconsin. Not so. I will have to track them down.

Shopping

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Today I went shopping with 2 new friends from church. We hit Good Will first. I found jeans, shirts of various kinds, tan pants, a wool pair of pants, a merino sweater to match and a comfy red valore shirt. My discount card from Good Will is not valid in Madison. Elwood hung out with our driver. Elwood does not like hanging out but he doesn’t like changing rooms either. Then we went to lunch–an Albanian owned diner with American style food–very pleasant. Elwood was very good as he and I were reunited and basking in that was enough for him. We did Walmart afterward to find a few things unavailable at Good Will. A good time was had by all and will be repeated when they return from Upper Michigan peninsula.

Pleasant Day

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Sunday I went out to lunch with my ride and some family members. Not all the people in the “family” are directly related to one another which makes it remarkable that they consider themselves family. I had the opportunity to review a Braille menu which was not only incomplete in the meals offered but some of the words were cut off. The folks were startled that the Braille did not follow the large print. I was surprised they thought it would as they are different sizes. Afterwards, we stopped at the farmer’s market at my corner. I was able to pick up some vegetables for the week. The carrots are all knobby and odd sizes which makes them fun. I decided to offer one to Elwood as a treat. I think he was quite shocked about it though he didn’t refuse it and went off to enjoy it. After church I got some apples, too, which were from an orchard though how they arrived and what the distribution method was I did not learn. One of my lunch companions offered to go thrift store shopping with me later in the week. We will firm things up at the Wednesday night dinner. One of my Bible study companions came to chat after church. It was nice to recognize a few people.

In the Kitchen and Other Adventures

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Today I have spent a great deal of time in the kitchen and I have more time to spend there later. I’ve been cleaning up and cooking. Today I made a big batch of vegetable soup which will be handy for quick meals. I used sweet potatoes instead of the fingerlings and I’ve decided I like the fingerlings better, but the sweet potatoes will have to do for this batch. I also tried the beef bacon which is cut thick like Canadian bacon, I think. It may be already cooked because it didn’t feel raw. It is not at all fatty so did not make a mess in the microwave when I heated it up. I had an egg and bacon sandwich.

Library and Other Adventures

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Today Elwood and I went to our local library. On Sunday J. and Melanie scoped it out. On the way, we said “Hi,” to the farmer’s market folks. If I had wanted something, I should have gotten it then because on our way back it was crowded. We had a misadventure, mistaking a driveway as a street and ending up amid housing and such. Elwood does not like retracing his steps so backtracking is difficult, but South park is a busy street so I can hear our general direction. We found our way to Villager Mall where the library is. We did pass the library and when we entered a clothing store, they urriedly told us we weren’t in the right place. “The library is next door,” they said. I had a helpful librarian. I am registered not only for the library but to vote and I brought home two CD books. In looking at the library site, I discovered I am reading a previous book from the library’s book discussion group. The month’s book is about September 11 and I don’t think I want to read that so I’ll wait for next month. It is disappointing. I also discovered the library has an RSS feed of its events. Right now they are starting a workshop on writing down your memories. They have story time, a knitting group and classes and help with writing–resumes, job applications, etc. My beach crocs arrived today. Boy were my old ones worn!

Wonderful Day

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Sunday was cold and rainy in the morning. My ride was late. The rain drops got harder and more frequent. When my ride to church arrived, I said we needed an inclement weather policy. We have now agreed where I should wait in case I cannot be out at the curb.

Our conversation around Elie Wiesel’s book is still very largely lecture, but I think that is more the desire of the leader to share info than a desire to squelch conversation. The holocaust and the history of the Jews is, after all, quite a large topic. Next week we are to share passages.

Drum Choir

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday our special music at church was an African Drum Choir. I gathered this is a special choir at the church. It was quite wonderful, very different from a marching band. It is clear to me how drums can be said to talk. Some people really didn’t like them because of the volume. I was sitting up close and it wasn’t too loud. Elwood got a little nervous, but he got through it all right. We had a good sermon, too. God is not a good idea. God is alive and relational. Again, a different version of the Lord’s Prayer and “sitting” Communion this time. I discovered I had to break off a piece of bread. That changes, too, from broken off for you or breaking it yourself. My guess is that people have opinions on this, too, and so some of the people are happy at any given time.

Interrior Decorating

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

When I signed the lease, there was much emphasis on proper care of walls–no nails or tape. Picture hanging was offered. I decided, with the kids’ help, that the large pictures should hang in the dining room. I figured the clocks could hang theere, too, out of the way but available to be wound. Unfortunately, many suitable walls have circuit breakers, thermostats, door phone, light switches, phone jacks and the like where something could be hung. The builders had first dibs. The maintenance man and a different helper arrived today, measured, had opinions and got the job done. The maintenance man has made three grandfather clocks. We talked about the Amana Colony and their clocks and furniture-making. One of the chains had jumped off its gear and he fiddled for some time to get it back on. Now everything is ticking along well. He even tightened the hands on the chiming clock, though he’ll have to come back to adjust the hour hand. The clock is sounding one hour and reading another. Now I feel I am not living in a sterile environment.

J Walker

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The weather here has been hotter and cooler, humid and not. Overnight temps are going down.

Elwood and I took a walk Friday, around 3. Elwood grumbled in a dog way when I turned around at South Park, but we walked to South and Fish Hatchery, down and back on Midland and then came down Appleton. I expected to cross there–it Ts into South. To get a crosswalk, we need to walk down to West Wingra and then walk back almost to Appleton. Well, Elwood has figured out where he is. So he J walked across South. I knew because now South was on my right and not on my left. He marched down the sidewalk and turned into our driveway and up to the door. It was dinner time and Elwood does not like his dinner to be late. He is a lot like Nero Wolf in this way.

Newsletter Article

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Seeing Eye Dog We are delighted to have Rev. Merrill Woolnough, who recently moved to Madison from Jamestown New York, worshiping with us. Her Seeing Eye Dog named Elwood accompanies her. Parents and others have asked about how they should relate to the dog. Merrill has asked us to share the following in answer to this question: Elwood is a yellow Labrador Retriever. He is three years old. We met at the Seeing Eye in Morristown, NJ in December, 2006 where we trained together for almost 3 weeks.Seeing Eye dogs are chosen for their intelligence and ability to guide a blind person safely. They are not guard dogs. Protectiveness is not a desired trait because it would limit the blind person’s ability to interact socially and professionally. As a result, Elwood is always glad to see people. However, interacting with him is dangerous, not for you, but for me. If he is distracted by a new friend, he may not be focused on his job, letting me know about obstacles such as stairs and walls. This is particularly important in an unfamiliar environment like the church building.Please do not touch Elwood or speak to him, especially by name. Using his name is how I get his attention to follow a command. Thank you.

Jasmin Tea

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I’m still having quite a time figuring out how much to buy through the coop. part of this is figuring out what I will need for the next ten days since I am trying to spread out my orders. I hope not to stockpile food this way, a bad habit I fall into. Food is not a problem. I will not starve. The other challenge is going by weight. Fairtrade jasmin tea, for example, is over $33 a pound. How much loose tea is that? How many ounces should I order? Well, I ordered some, I forget how much, and got quite a bit, more than I expected and make a cup of it with an infuser I bought back in 1981. It is quite good and fairly strong.

One Mystery Solved

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve had a lot of pain in my left shoulder. It has made doing a lot of tasks painful including working with Elwood since I hold the harness in my left hand. I thought it was a lot of things, some quirky and some dire, but I think I’ve solved the mystery. Because we cannot get the router working, I’ve been sitting at the computer desk and the keyboard of the laptop is at the wrong height. My shoulder doesn’t get better because I use the keyboard every day. Having discovered this, I’m trying a work around: I plugged the keyboard from the desktop into the laptop and I’m sitting on a chair nearby with the keyboard in my lap. It’s a little large for this purpose, but it’s lighter than the whole laptop and I can deal with the USB cable. i was pleased that the laptop recognized the keyboard and transferred control to it. When I’m not using the keyboard I can set it on the keyboard shelf I bought for the desk and get it out when I need it. I also grabbed one of the dining room chairs to sit on which are comfortable. The only inconvenience so far is that I haven’t bothered to plug in external speakers and so I’m using the laptop speakers. When a truck goes by I can’t hear what the computer is saying, but then I could be sitting in front of it and have the same problem.

Details

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve come to the conclusion that moving isn’t just about moving, as frustrating as that is. It isn’t even about stuff though that is continuing to be a frustration. It’s about getting life running smoothly again. Moving is one of the great stressers because everything gets disrupted.

The kids came Saturday, all of them. It was really great to have them here. We just never have enough time to do anything but high level stuff. Anyway, we had fun at the coffee shop and checked out the neighborhood a little more. I may be able to access the light at the T intersection because it is across from an alleyway and Elwood recognized it. We also showed him how to cross a wider street. I learned that South Park and Fish hatchery cross each other. I wouldn’t have expected this as I think of them as paralleling each other, but in madison there are no straight lines. We also found more torn up places so South park is out for now.

Weekend

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve been busy this weekend. Saturday morning we took a walk and traveled some new streets. We went to the grocery store. Elwood identified a helpful person and I had a nice chat with the customer service man who, when I asked for a roll of quarters, said, “laundry day, huh?” elwood wanted to tour afterwards, but I kept insisting he find the stairs to the medical center parking lot and he finally did that.

Busy Day

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

My sister looked at google maps for me and worked out a basic walking route. We tested it out today. There is still construction at West Wingra and South Park so that direction was blocked as was West Wingra to Fish Hatchery crossing South Street. So we walked on the opposite side of the street, down Appleton to a busy street which I later determined was Fish hatchery. We retraced our steps–Elwood hates this part–and crossed, going up to Midland and along to Fish hatchery, crossing Appleton and going down to West Wingra. That’s a strange crossing, but Elwood is a champ and knew where to go and with the traffic running on Fish Hatchery, I figured we were pretty safe. We can’t walk along the river/creek on Planert because there isn’t a path, so we crossed and walked on the other side of the street. I’m wondering if there is a store at the corner of South Park because I heard someone making those paging noises out to the street which I often here at big stores. We crossed over the water–a very steep bridge–and had to walk all the way back to along West Wingra to Fish Hatchery, up to Appleton, and back down to South and West Wingra to cross. Elwood hasn’t figured out yet which building is ours from this direction, but fortunately I now know the step up to –51 is different than our entrance. We went in the front door of our building after that. We had never done that before. Come to think of it, we could have stepped off –51’s stoop and gone into our building. I’m just not wired that way just yet. It’ll be a shock to Elwood when we do that.

Maiden Voyage

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood and I went to the grocery store today. We went off early and arrived at the store with help from others entering the store. We located customer service with help and received it promptly. The helper was very straight forward: What should I do? We traveled about the store, picking up a few items. The helper stayed with me through checkout. The cashier wanted to know how I wanted my cash back and, since I asked that my groceries be put in my carry bag, if I was taking the bus. Our helper got us out of the store. We returned to the parking lot we need to traverse. Wow! This is going great. Then I find myself on a street with traffic on my left instead of my right if we are to be going back to the apartment with about 10 pounds of groceries. I turn around. Elwood suggests we cross a street and start investigating a residential area. I decide to retrace our steps and one thing led to another and we are walking down the sidewalk of a busy road. I heard a buzzer to indicate a signal change and hoped we were on South Park. Elwood hesitated, then went on. We walked. No one was out and about. We walked some more. I didn’t have my cell phone but then again, who would I have called? I kept thinking we’d hit the corner but the sidewalk seemed to go on forever. I hoped this was not a street I had never been on. Remembering that the corner of West Wingra and South park is a long walk, and yet not coming to it, I turned around. Elwood was grumpy and I was short with him. He turned into a parking lot. With luck, this was the grocery store and yes, it was. A very helpful man wanted to know if we were going inside and I said no and we went into the parking lot again. Elwood thought we might cross South Street and stood firm on that for a short while, but then did indeed turn toward home. But he didn’t turn into our driveway and kept walking and walking. Were we on our street? I decided to turn around because if we were, we had passed our building. Elwood turned into a driveway but the step up to the door wasn’t right and my key doesn’t work in that building’s lock.. We tried again. We went to the front of the next building. I decided to find our driveway and we went up the next one. Yes, this was ours. Elwood had found it.

Staying Put

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

This morning Elwood and I took out the trash and the recycling. Lots of odds and ends. He sat quietly while I got everything into the right dumpster. Then we took boxes down to the basement. This is a bit awkward since there are the stairs, the boxes and us. I ended up having him sit inside the basement while I maneuvered the boxes inside. The door is heavy and spring-loaded so that it remains loccked. I didn’t want to catch any part of him in the door. Then I manuevered the boxes around the corner and picked him up to go to the storage unit. Then Elwood sat quietly again while I stowed them. It’s so impressive, this waiting patiently and not going off about dog business.

Catching Up

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

There have been grumbles that I haven’t updated this journal recently. I guess that is because I’ve been tired and frustrated with my internet service. I guess I’ll have to get on that soon because it isn’t working with my wireless router and that is a real pain.

There are still some boxes to be unpacked, some stuff to go down in the storage area and some odds and ends of packing materials to go in the dumpster. Elwood is very good about finding the dumpster and the recycling dumpster which is behind it.

A New Chapter

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Melanie and I spent the day picking up little things. We began at Good Will and worked our way up to Bed Bath and Beyond. I now have a 5% discount card at Good Will–disabled people and seniors get one. We also found Elwood a mat for his bowls with blue pawprints on it since he will be eating in the dining room.

J. reviewed the contract and we think we’re okay. The difficulty has arisen over under-estimating we think. The company says my things will arrive this weekend. We are off in the morning to start the process.

Walking in the Rain

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

We went out for dinner at Qudoba to celebrate Melanie’s birthday. Afterwards, we walked outside. The band played Celebrate. Then thunder and a downpour. Melanie had an umbrella. Half of Melanie was under the umbrella. Half of me was under the umbrella. None of J. or Elwood was under the umbrella. When we got inside, J. went to dry his hair. We looked at a few things in the mall then went to Barnes and Noble for a coffee and to get warm and a little dryer. AFterwards we picked up a few things at Trader Joe’s. Now we are home. Elwood got dried off and we are a bit dryer, too.

Bait and Switch

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Something is fishy in the charges for my move. According to the moving service, I moved 5,800 pounds. Not a chance. The money owed may or may not be correct, but certainly relates not at all to the poundage reported. The solution is to pay and go with the truck to a weigh station. Much inconvenience and irritation. Waste of time and gas, but necessary, I think, to avoid being scammed. According to the office, they loaded the truck 709. Try 0628. Melanie suggested they are reading the wrong ticket. I hope it is that. I asked the coordinator via email to re-confirm info. Waiting for a response. If this does not come by afternoon, I’ll call. irritating enough. Time to move on as my guest status has gotten old for everyone.

The Plot Thickens

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

She had to pull the file. The weight ticket is dated 627. My things were loaded on the truck 628. Stand by.

Slow Progress

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Still waiting around to hear about the arrival of the moving truck. Well, experience is handy in these things. Fortunately, I have a place to hang. We even had leftovers last night.

I have learned that the local co-op in Madison delivers to my area and I’ve had fun reading about all the products I can order. Figuring out poundage as opposed to pieces of fruit will be an adventure. You can also order glass jars and bottles for your stuff to be delivered in if you want to avoid plastic. Meat is pricey because it is organic or free range but then we’re all supposed to eat less meat and this is certainly an incentive. I was pleased to discover they have a specific link to Wisconsin cheeses. I could dump most meat for cheese anyway. The coop is full service so there’s paper towels, toilet paper and light bulbs, too. Unfortunately, it’s a different kind of pet food. There’re cleaners in bulk, too. Definitely not glass there for me. I remember the days when shampoo came in glass containers. Not good.

Move Update

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I shot off an email to the moving company yesterday and within 15 minutes I got acall. Unfortunately, the cell phone wasn’t nearby so it became a voice mail. They don’t have a weight ticket yet; the truck was at a loading stop; they will deliver by 7/11. I can’t ask for better resonse than this. The impression that things are messier than they really are is because I’m so unfamiliar with this process. I am sharing the truck with others. I will receive a call 24 hours before delivery. Melanie has advised her office. It’s like waiting for a baby. This afternoon I will see the apartment. I hope to have pictures.

Walks

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks for all the comments and news.

Sandra, a busy day after Grace isn’t a bad thing. You’ll hit your stride soon. I’m looking forward to your journal resuming publication.

Yesterday I sat down to the computer to do some work. I ended up dealing with upgrades and system issues. It took me most of the day.

Last night we walked to the local Outpost Coop to buy a few things. Kiwi for breakfast is very good.

Rough Waters

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The movers finally arrive after 5 o’clock Saturday and were very tired. Apparently their last pickup thought they would pack everything and was totally unpacked. Of course, they hadn’t contracted for this. I understand they moved everything out, but left a few hinges behind. Fortunately, they will be mailed. They did, however, litter which I will report.

My daughter-in-law arrived at work after vacation to discover her boss thought she would be out today and scheduled a meeting for all day tomorrow when we planned to sign the lease. I have emailed the apartment and I hope Wednesday will be okay.

Saturday

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood was still on eastern time this morning. Now that he and I know where his relief area is, this will work well. We took a long walk with J. and Melanie to a local coffee shop where we had lunch outside. Milwaukee prices are very different from Jamestown prices. Next we went to Trader Joe’s and to Walgreens. A several mile walk in gorgeous weather. I got a sunburn. Elwood got a workout with many street crossings. He handled everything with aplomb.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Today Elwood and I set off for the two-block walk to the Post Office. I have found our city Post office to be a peculiar building, but then, maybe every Post Office is peculiar. There was the little building behind Musclemann’s store where Mrs. perdom weighed our 4-H rabbits for my sister and me. We brought them in our doll carriage, the only conveyance we had available to us which would contain the rabbits. A wagon would not have worked.

Elephant in the Room

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

We certainly are enjoying the warmer weather and dry sidewalks here in jamestown. Elwood and I have done our River Walk route and are starting to walk down 3rd Street for exercise. We found that the crossing at Washington is clear.

We went down that way when the circus was in town. Elwood was acting very strange, not focused on what I wanted him to do but investigating other people and looking around. It seems he was smelling elephants.

Easter Ham

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood and I were invited to Easter dinner. Elwood was additionally invited to be loose in the house. He immediately began to rush about, upstairs and down, investigating everything. The appetizers on the coffee table created some excitement. Bouncing on and off people’s laps created a stirr. The biggest excitement though was when he discovered the Easter ham on the sideboard. He was apprehended with his nose a quarter of an inch from the ham.

Around Town

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Fortunately, the bad windstorm that hit Buffalo and the northern part of the county only made our streets blustery. I used the yacktracks (spelling) for the first time. They go over the bottoms of my boots to help get a secure grip on the sidewalk. It was icy in the morning. I’m getting used to them. It feels like very springy stuff underfoot and I didn’t feel quite as stable but I didn’t slip.On the way home the crossing of 3rd treet didn’t feel right–too long. I encouraged Elwood to get out of the street and onto the sidewalk. He did, bumping me into a sign. Well, a sign was better than a atractor trailor. We got to the next curb. I was expecting Pine Street which is brick with a long ramp. We weren’t there. Hmmm. Where were we? It was cold and the wind was blowing. It was not a pleasant to day to be lost if there is ever a pleasant day to be lost. I decided we must be at the corner of North Main and 2nd on the west side. This meant that when crossing 3rd, Elwood had angled across NOrth Main, too. I mention this not to scare anyone, but to say how grateful I am that Jamestown drivers make it a point not to hit me when I’m walking down the center of the street which has the light. So we made our turn, crossed, went down to Pine, up the hill, crossed Pine and came home. That was done with great aplomb. I always wonder what prompts a dog to make such an error. I sometimes think they are daydreaming or something catches their eye or maybe we just got blown across the street. Of course, this story sounds straight forward and simple. It’s not when I don’t know for certain that I’m standing at the northwest corner of 2nd and North Main. I could have been on an entirely different street facing another direction. I just acted as if and it worked out just fine. Because of the weather, we didn’t take our afternoon walk yesterday but we ventured forth today. I tiink the yacktrax helped a good deal on the river walk. I A great deal of the path is now exposed but there is a patch which is slow to clear. It must be shady there. Elwood considers we are a standard route and he walks it without complaint. We’re working on going to the down curb at North Main and not turning left or right to go up or down the hill until I tellhim which way to go. I also pointed out the cut out in the sidewalk that was causing me to go off the walk into the grassline. He avoided that mistake the next time through. Elwood still has difficulty with right hand clearances. In his defense, and he doesn’t have much of a case, honestly, he often has to fit through some fairly tight places and I carry a bag in my right arm and tend to have that arm out a bit from my body. However, it’s his job to account for everything. His trainer was young and maybe thinner. I actually think he doesn’t like tosqueeze himself. However, he doesn’t like to be in error so pays attention when I point things out to him. He even did a bit better with not sniffing the people he passed today. In avoiding a nasty piece of sidewalk on the bridge the other day he ran me into the side of the bridge. I hope there is more than the concrete I felt; otherwise, I could have gone over the edge which would not have been pleasant. The river is running but probably very, very cold. Someone asked me the other day how my new dog was working out. I said, “He’s learning the ropes.” And the other person said, “I thought they came trained.” Well, yes, but every trip, every route is its own new adventure.

At Home

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Although today has been a sunny day, we haven’t had much opportunity to go for a walk. This is partly my fault–I haven’t organized my time to fit a walk in during the warmest time of day. The other factors have been snow, very cold temperatures, wind and inconvenience. Elwood has a trouble with salt or wet getting between his paws. Walking past the bank at 3rd and Main is especially difficult. He stops at the alley and suggests we go to 2nd Street or cross 3rd in the middle of the block. It takes a lot of encouragement for him to go forward and he hops about. I have thought of putting on his “boots” but as we were not successful when we used them at school, I am lothe to go through the trial of getting them onto his feet. I am almost positive he would lose one of them by the time we got to AMain Street. As smart as he is, Elwood is a little slow at figuring out it is to his advantage to keep such things in place. He has become a better worker in snow. Unfortunately, he still thinks it would be fun to depart mfrom our route and play in the snow. Wouldn’t that be fun? Probably and I feel badly we can’t, or at least he can’t, but we could easily become lost and separated. I have no idea how Elwood would handle being loose and I don’t want to find out.Elwood likes being cute and knows everybody else thinks he is just adorable when he’s doing cute things. It drives me wild and being tough on him is never popular.The other day, I had him finally settled under the table at a restaurant. He wanted to visit with my friend who was sitting across from me. We were proceeding with our breakfast and our conversation. A woman came up and asked if she could pet the dog. I said, “No,” and she proceeded to carry on, with tears in her eyes, how Elwood looked so much like the yellow lab she had had and went from dog story to dog story about every dog she had ever had. Results? Elwood now bounced around. She had interrupted my friend and Ime. I was very annoyed. Uncharitable? I am willing to be charitable, but not to letting people pet my dog. I am compassionate, but not to the point of having my breakfast totally disrupted. Don’t people get it?

Elwood is Three

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Today Elwood is three. I can hardly believe it. He wasn’t quite two when I got him.

I can’t say he has settled down any. In some ways, he seems wilder now. I think this is because he thinks he can get away with more things with me. We don’t tell the dogs we can’t see, but they figure it out. Elwood’s great transgression is sleeping on the day bed. It is hard to catch him and even to scold him when he wags so happily at me. “Hi! Here I am.”

Grease Spots

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood went to the spa today. He hesitated about going in, but afterwards I was told he very much enjoyed his bath–all the attention and hugging. It turns out Elwood had 2 grease spots on either shoulder. He checks out the undersides of vehicles for some odd reason. The groomer’s actual has degreasing shampoo. Apparently he is not the only dog to engage in this peculiar habit.

I forgot to check. We were on our way to the grocery store when Kathy said, “He brought his bone with him.” So I relieved Elwood of the bone and had to carry it along the street and into the car. Elwood thought he might pick it up again and bring it with him into the store. I said not. HE doesn’t hold onto it but drops it after a while and I didn’t want it to get lost because he wouldn’t learn the lesson about taking care of his stuff; he’d just be sad he had nothing to play with.

Upon Further Investigation

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

We took another walk today. It was warmer. We walked along the river side of the plaza and found the street that runs along behind it. I had been right. There was just a driveway part way up the hill and when we crossed it, the sidewalk continued to the next street. We walked the two long blocks down to Lakin. It was very quiet which was very pleasant. WE turned right, crossed the little brick street and found another sidewalk which led us back to 3rd Street. Elwood was quite grumpy. I turned to walk back toward the bridge. He didn’t want to do that. We had already been walking for over a half an hour. When we got to Hall, he turned. No, we’re going across. He thought about not going across but I prevailed. Then I turned him back up the hill and we walked around the plaza, only crossing one superfluous street on our way around. I think we can walk down on the other side of the street, but there was the sound of construction so I forebore until a more opportune time. Elwood was still hurrumphing. He wanted to turn and walk west along 3rd Street instead of turning for home. We were out more than an hour. I’m feeling it and fell asleep in my chair this afternoon reading I Robot which I think I may have read before but there are only whispers of what I had read before. I also got the adult forum for today posted at http:/thewingedox.blogspot.com

Exploring

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Today was cool and without rain. I put on my sweatshirt and Elwood and I went for a long walk. I decided to stick to 3rd Street. I didn’t feel up to messing with 6th Street since we hadn’t done this route in a while for a number of reasons. Saturday seemed like a good opportunity.We walked as far as Lakin then turned around. Elwood was cross. He moved along smartly up until this point. When we crossed Hall, I turned right to go alongside the plaza. Could we walk around it.Well, walking into unknown territory has its rewards and its shortcomings. We didn’t get lost. We did run out of sidewalk, found a brick path that led to a structure and found a sidewalk that terminated at blacktop. Elwood turned, but I am still wondering if we could have crossed it to get to 3rd St. I will test that hypothesis starting out at 3rd another day.We retraced our steps, but Elwood thought we should cross a brick street. I didn’t remember crossing that street, but then we had walked, turned around, walked, turned around such that I thought I may have been mistaken. Well, I wasn’t mistaken. Elwood wanted to keep going. I hadn’t realized Hall was brick at this point. We passed a man with a dog and ended up at another street corner. I turned right and came to another street, turned right again expecting to be back in front of the funeral home. Wrong. Unbeknownst to me, we weren’t walking along 3rd Street. We came into Hall. Crossing this yet named street, we made our way back to 3rd, crossed and walked in front of the plaza and home.It was a good walk and we found some more places to walk and we never were particularly lost; I just didn’t always know exactly where I was which is a very different thing. Being lost is not having a clue even which way to turn or having the feeling you will walk indefinitely and not come to something familiar.

Mailbox

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I subscribe to netflix. As a result, I often have dvds to mail back. I use the mailbox behind the post office complex on East 2nd Street. There is a miailbox closer, but I use this one because it also affords us a walk especially if we go around the post office complex. I’ve been teaching Elwood to find the mailboxes. Previously, I had to do this by trial and error. At first, we missed it and had to go back. Today I gave the command “mailbox” beforehand, when I thought we were nearby. Elwood went right to the bank of mailboxes and I could drop my discs in. Much praise. I think I will tell him every time we take that route whether or not we have anything to mail. He wouldn’t care. I could even open and close the door as if I were mailing something to emphasize his find was worthwhile. I think Elwood is gullible enough to believe I was mailing something because the concept of mailing anything is beyond him.

The Name Elwood

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I found this link to an article about this year’s ugliest dog. His name is Elwood and he is two years old. There’s a picture. I also found out that Elwood is Chuck Yeager’s middle name.

No Common Sense

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood is a very smart dog. He is excellent in crossing streets and handling traffic. He relies on crosswalks. He is learning how to behave in social situations. He is affectionate and reminds me of the dogs in cartoons.

However … Elwood has no common sense. Yesterday he ate a dish towel. He also got sick. Dish towels are not digestable so I have been picking up clumps of tried-to-be-digested dish towel all over the house.

Toes

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

At the rail this morning … I knelt for annointing. Elwood laid down next to me and began to inch forward. And then … He licked Mother Susan’s toes.

More Pictures

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Fooling around more with the camera. Learning where images are stored. Unfortunately, the camera ap doesn’t speak so I had to be content with either photos or videos and not switching between them.

Glorious Day

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Today has been a glorious day. It was cool. We went for a long walk and Elwood got through the trouble spots just fine. I lost track of streets and when he wanted to turn down one I said okay knowing that I could probably figure out where the stop sign was where we cross. Less trucks especially on the bridge. Some people out. At one point we met some people we know who were putting grass seed in front of the building.

Fat Face

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Gail mentioned Elwood looked as if he had filled out and was older looking. Elwood has gained some weight. It seems he has gained weight in his face. He is broader around the eyes making his head appear wider. Talk about having a fat face or a fat head!

Earlier today I went to the farmer’s market and brought home some small green peppers, wonderfully unique in their conformation: no two alike. One rolled out of the bag onto the floor. Elwood thought it was his. Fortunately, someone else realized the problem and took it away from him but not before he has made it unusable for human consumption. I was worried that he would eat the inside of the pepper and become ill.

Elwood Up to No Good

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood wants to take a walk but today hasn’t been a good day for a walk. The temp is fine. I’ve just had things to do.

We went to the Farmer’s MArket. Elwood sniffed, went under the tables to see what is stored there and ate a flower.

Elwood came home, and after having his flea stuff was aplied, went and curled up on the day bed. He’s near the same color as the day bed but he has brown eyes and the comforter on the bed does not so someone saw him there.

Elwood and the Towel

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

We went to the river walk this afternoon. I prepared for not having the picnic table. This was also our exercise today as it is again very humid. I found a tree and tied Elwood to it. I laid a towel on the grass. Elwood raced to claim it.

I should mention that Elwood likes to sleep on towels and laundry in the other room. I call it Elwood has his own bedroom.

Reworking the Route

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Today we reworked we had trouble with yesterday. We walked across the bridge, very noisy with trucks today. Beforehand, Elwood wanted to walk down Fairmount to 3rd Street. When we were starting across Steel, a car cut us off. The instructor yelled at the driver who was talking on the phone. I retreated to the curb. We worked through Fairview. Both curbs are hard to find because they are very curvey. Elwood wants very much to go down the side streets. It’s not as noisy and new areas are far more fun to explore than doing the same old thing over and over.

Elwood's Ideas

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood’s ideas about reading and blogging at riverside are very different from my ideas. He got tangled and I wanted to be sure he was present and not off somewhere else so I added the flxi lead to the mix. Elwood was thrilled. He came right over, got between my legs, curled up and settled in It made moving or using the bluetooth keyboard impossible because every time he settled his chin on one leg and I moved the keyboard to the other leg, he had to move and use the keyboard leg. There was to be no competition for my body parts.

Sitting on the Grass by the River

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I thought we would spend some time on the River Walk.Unfortunately, other people were at the picnic bench, a 3-generational family. Elwood thought we should join them. They did not invite us so I found this tree. Elwood is doing what dogs do with trees–get tangled around them. Nest time, I will bring a towel. My windbreaker is a little small to sit upon.

Earlier we did our 5k. We got lost. We ended up several blocks away from our target but people are helpful and we got ourselves reoriented. Fairmount residential and 3rd? We wanted 5th. Go this way. I hope Elwood appreciates the walk and that we need to be a little more attentive to our route rather than exploring the neighborhood.

5K

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

We did it! We set out from the apartment, walked to Prendergast, went to 5th and went all the way to Fairview where we went down to Harding. I decided to walk Harding instead of going back to Fairmount. I didn’t feel like walking back up the hill and Fairmount is busy and noisy. There was a fair amount of traffic on harding, but it’s basically residential.

We had a little trouble at Steel. We will need to review the intersection, as to where it is. We also overshot on Harding and coming back, Elwood did one of those wonderful diagonal crossings to get to where he needed to be. The good people at the intersection just waited for us to get out of the street. I found the button at 3rd and we sailed home.

First Week on the Job

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Today a new hire came to learn about technology. Of course, Elwood thought this was a new friendship in the making. We sent this picture back to the Blind Association and titled it Debbie hard At Work.

The Spa

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Today Elwood went to the spa. Elwood doesnot like the spa. The groomers touch his feet. They get him wet. They look into his ears. They use a blow dryer on him. But he is clean, nice smelling and they even gave him a potty break. It was hot in Lakewood my skin was burning in the sun around my collar bone.

Elwood cried when he heard my voice at the desk. I guess he thought he had been abandoned. He was excited to get his harness on and get out of there. He’ll be back in two months. You have to schedule the next appointment when you are there because they are filling up quickly.

ucky

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t know if this posted on Monday but if not, here it is as I wrote it: .’m told it’s lucky to be on a bridge when a train passes under. We were cross the 6th Street bridge when I heard the train.

Of course, if you know the train schedule, you could always be on the bridge when it went under. I suppose is luck is a real thing, you’d have to be on the bridge as an act of randomness rather than as a plan–as if there is a rule about luck, its acquisition and loss.

Mailing Letters

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

We went to mail letters. I have to locate the box along the street without any clear landmark. Elwood is getting the idea so we found it easily today. We could not retrace our steps. Elwood insisted we take the long way home.

Learning the Route

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood and I have been learning a route which I’m calling our 5k walk. I don’t know if it is actually 5k, but it’s close enough I suspect. Today we did the part that goes over the 6th Street Bridge.

Now the thing about Jamestown is that one street becomes another. We are walking on 5th and then we’re walking on 6th and then we’re walking on Fairmount and basically, we’re walking along the same street.

Pebbles

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

My sister had a Pebbles doll after the Flintstone baby in the 1960s. She had a bone in her hair. You could always tell a Pebbles doll.

Elwood is like this. He seems to always have a bone in his mouth. I’m sure it would be one of the characteristics of an Elwood cartoon and he is very definitely a cartoon dog. The original cartoonist had a dog like Elwood I am sure.

River Walk

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Today Brian and I went to explore the river walk that runs between South Main and Harrison along the Chattaquine. That’s probably not how it is spelled but it is how it is pronounced.) It’s just a black-topped path along the riverside, a grassy bank separating it from the water. There are trees and ducks. The water flows over some debris creating tiny rapids and babbly. The path runs behind the CVS and the JAMA building. There’s a picnic table, too. I have plans for it. I hope Elwood and I can make good use of this area since we have no outdoor area near our apartment and this isn’t too far.

East 2nd Street

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I’m posting this from my PDA. Hopefully this means I will be get back into posting on this blog more frequently.

A week or so ago Elwood and I walked down East 2nd Street to Washington Street. We were avoiding 3rd Street which has a lot of people-centered obstacles on it. Elwood stoped. He was having trouble, I thought, with a pole. Yes,there was a pole. It also turned out there was a hole.My right foot went in. Fortunately, the hole had a bottom and didn’t go to China before coming to the end. I scraped my shin on the concrete and made Elwood take note of the hole. Then we went to the corner. Elwood was quite anxious. The day before he had rammed me into the planter there. The sidewalk is narrow so navigation is treacherous.

Taste of Jamestown

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Sandi stopped by and we went to the farmer’s market. 3rd Street is blocked off for the birthday celebration for a few blocks. In addition to the birthday stuff, there is a one-block mini festival called “A Taste of Jamestown.” Local vendors, caterers and restaurants, are selling food. Apparently you buy tickets and pay for the food with tickets. Some picnic tables are set up. I didn’t buy anything.

So we walked down the middle of 3rd Street. Elwood found this slightly irregular. I told him that as long as he was with Sandi, he could do this.

LucyDays

Sun, 27 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood and I are getting ready to go to Fredonia to worship at First Baptist and celebrate Pentecost. Elwood’s preparation has been getting brushed. He went to the groomer’s Wednesday for a long overdue bath. (There was a 5-week wait. I didn’t want him to get wet during the very cold winter months since getting completely dry before going outside is difficult.) That got a lot of his fur off, but, apparently, he is doing some serious shedding. I opted out of my black pants to go with my red shirt.

Ups and Downs

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The weather is better–much better. I haven’t had to wear a winter coat for several days. In fact, I haven’t had to wear a jacket today except for early this morning.

Getting ready for church this morning, when I came out of the shower I found Elwood happily wagging his tail while sitting on the bed. Oh no, Elwood. I don’t think so!

And at church, perhaps climbing in my lap, standing on the pew, looking to see who might be coming in the door? Oh no, Elwood. You had better wear your gentle leader.

Gospeler

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Today I read the Gospel at the Easter morning service at ST. Luke’s. This meant walking from the chancel down the center aisle to the middle of the church. There was someone with the book and torchbearers, I think. Elwood did okay being part of the parade. Packs are good. When I came to the person holding the book for me to read, I stopped, stepped to the middle and told Elwood to lay down.

Dog Humor

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Dogs have a sense of humor. They do things and they’re funny. I don’t know if the intent is to make you laugh. I rather think it is to demonstrate how clever they are and how tuned into what humans intend to do they are. Today Elwood enacted one of those practical jokes dogs are so good at. I had been sorting the laundry, adding to a pile of clothes on the floor. When the pile was of sufficient size I intended to throw it into the washer. Well, this time arrived. I went to the pile only to discover a dog sprawled out on top of it. Ha~! Ha! I’m on the laundry you want to put into the washing machine. I don’t know how he managed it. I was able to get all the laundry out from under him without Elwood moving. Maybe he moved when I was at the machine. I don’t know. It’s all mysterious.

I'm Dreaming of a White Easter

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Actually, it’s a nightmare. Significant snow but now plowed. Cold. I had to drag out my heavy coat, boots, gloves and hat. Yuck! Especially since shirt-sleeve weather proceeded it. While the good weather lasted, Elwood and I were going on several walks a day which I thought would be good for both of us. He plagues me with his bone if he is not tired. I have been quite cross with him and of course he doesn’t understand why. Then I feel bad and apologize and he goes and gets his bone again. It’s hard to do anything when being poked with a bone. If I knew the game it would help. He is bringing his bone for outdoor play every time we go out–still. Last night we went to church, having gotten rides to and from. I could have never walked it with reasonable safety. When we got into the church, Elwood jumped up onto the pew cushion and began parading back and forth. I got him back down into the aisle. We entered the pew again and again Elwood jumped up and pranced on the pew. Someone offered the short pew where wheelchairs can be placed. No, we would get this right–dog on floor, person on pew. Three was the charm. He managed to do it right after coming back from Communion, too. What a relief. Now all we have to do is get through Easter morning church. We’ve never participated in the gospel procession before. At least there are no pews to jump on.

One More Thing

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

While we still had warm weather, the fire alarm in my building went off. It was 10:30 at night. What to do? Was it just burned toast? I pulled on some clothes, got Elwood and my purse, and went down the back stairs. This seemed the most direct if not the easiest way out. Around threw the alley and up to the front of the building to find 4 or 5 emergency vehicles and my neighbors. They checked the building. There was the smell of paint or polyurethane but no fire. We all went back in.

Dog Food

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000

You may have heard of the pet food recall prompted by kidney failure in some dogs. As of this writing, the agent of the kidney failure in the food has not been identified. However, Elwood eats only dry food. It is the “wet” foods, puches and cans, that are effected.

A Week

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Well we’ve had just about everything this week:warm weatherheavy rain with thunder and lightningwinter mixand a snowstormIt must be St. Patrick’s Day in western New York!

Practical Joker

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000

A friend dropped by. Elwood ran to the door. Oh my goodness! my friend exclaimed. Elwood must have needed to go out. The carpet is now wet all down the hall. That’s funny, I said. He didn’t pester me to go out which he normally would do. Being a good friend, she went into the kitchen to get some paper towels and discovered the trail of liquid led to the water bowl. How odd. Then she looked at Elwood, still clutching his kong in his mouth which was still dripping water onto the carpet. No accident at all. The kong is designed in graduated rings with both top and bottom open. Some people hide treats inside especially peanut butter. Who would give a dog peanut butter I don’t know. I can’t stand the stuff. So now I know … Elwood has the makings of a practical joker.

Popcylcle

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I buy breakfast sausage links. They’re precooked and frozen. When I want sausage with my soft boiled egg in the morning, I take the package out of the freezer. The links are all lined up, five to a row and two rows in a package. With a knife, I break off how many sausages I want to microwave. This time, however, when I pressed down on the knife, one frozen sausage flew off the kitchen counter and landed in Elwood’s water bowl. Now both dogs and people know the rules about food:

I Gotta Go

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0000

When I untied Elwood this morning in preparation for going out, he began dashing wildly about, up and down the hall. Up onto the braille printer, hitting the form feed button. Back down the hall and back, knocking over the floor lamp. Another turn and more paper spewed forth. Finally, the leash was attached and he made it out in the knick of time. Upon his return to the apartment, he continued to be excited. fortunately, none of his restlessness was destructive. He simply had trouble settling down to go to his place so I could start preparing his breakfast. Once he was fed, he was his gentle self. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t poop at dinnertime or bedtime. You’re raring to go the next morning in more ways than one.

Where was Moses when the Lights Went Out

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0000

It continues to be very cold here, single digits at best with wind chills -20. Elwood shivers a lot. I keep trying different gloves for ones that will keep my hands warm and ones that will let me buckle the harness without taking them off. These do not tend to be the same gloves. We were able to get out and go for lunch. Elwood was excited to get some work in and behaved well at the restaurant. His guide work was very good, too. After dinner–Elwood’s, that is–the power went out. I hadn’t had supper. Elwood didn’t understand why I wasn’t putting the lights back on. My apartment dropped 2 degrees in 20 minutes. The power was out for about a half an hour. The radio on the a.m. band in this area was out, too. Philadelphia was coming in loud and clear which wasn’t helpful at all. I understand the local fm station was on, but I couldn’t pick it out from the rest. Elwood is starting to get the hang of curling up under the table. The other day I called him but he didn’t come. I called several times with corrections. Still no Elwood but much noise. I went to see what he was up to. He had gotten tangled in the speaker wires and was stuck. We straightened that out and he happily came with me.

Trusty Dog

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

It continues to snow here and be very, very cold–single digits on the radio this morning. The lack of sidewalk shoveling also continues. In areas there is salt so there is slush. The salt really bothers Elwood, getting into his pads. Today we needed to run an errand. Elwood is getting the hang of this snow ting and walking where the snow has been trodden down, pretending that there is a sidewalk. I would think making downtown walkable in bad weather would enhance the downtown area but no one else puts this idea into action. I have also discovered a trick of Elwood’s and I am trying to put a stop to it. When I come in, I had been unharnessing him and letting him dash off while I got my coat and boots off. No longer. He is required to wait until I get undressed before his harness comes off. Then he is sent to his place because … Elwood has been dashing into the kitchen and jumping up onto the counter while I was at the door and couldn’t see him.

Low Gear

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

It’s very cold today in Jamestown and is supposed to get into the single digits tonight. As a result, the snow is still here and it keeps flurrying. Elwood was excited to go somewhere this morning. He puts it into low gear, that is, he pulls very hard but isn’t going particularly fast as if he is down shifting. He did fairly well turning at the corner of Main and 3rd though he had trouble finding the up ramp. We just went over the curb on the Main Street side. Not his fault. There’s snow covering the curb. A woman driving down Main Street stopped to tell me he was holding his left foot up. She thought it might be cold. I think it may have had some salt in between his pads. The walk around the bank and the street were very gritty. Eric was shoveling when I got to church. Their curb has been very clear. I put the gentle leader on. Elwood stayed down for most of the service, even during anointing for healing. Very impressive. He also settled down nicely for Bible study without it on. Maybe he’s getting this church thing a little. Our walk home went well. He’s starting to figure out where the curbs ought to be on the return trip at 4th and 3rd. He was still proceeding in low gear.

Unintended Consequences

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

More snow on the way tomorrow. Today we took it easy so far as sallying forth. Yesterday I went to the mailbox. We walked past City hall. I thought that might be clear. It isn’t always. Unfortunately, USPS doesn’t think its patrons will be using the boxes on 2nd street. They were not clear of snow though you could open them. Obviously the public continues to mail letters. I’m finally getting back into netflix so I had an envelope to mail. Crossing Prendergast at 2nd is not clear so I went up to 3rd thinking that would be better. It’s another rounded curb. I thought I had it right. I thought Elwood’s hesitation was about the large puddle. Maybe it was. Labs will jump in the lake but get their feet wet in a puddle! You’ve got to be kidding. Then the traffic was all wrong. Getting onto the sidewalk was all wrong. The sidewalk wasn’t as clear but then we weren’t up against the building. The street crossing at Spring had a lot more traffic than usual, more trucks. The sidewalk wasn’t at all what is in front of our building and we didn’t get to Pine Street. Oh, we crossed 3rd instead of Prendergast. No problem. We’ll just take the long way home. It wasn’t until I was standing at Spring that I realized the traffic flow was wrong for 4th Street. They are each one way streets–in different directions. We were at 5th. Oh yeah! That street we crossed wasn’t at City Hall. It was 4th St. across from the Jackson Center. No problem. Well, I don’t know … somehow we lost the sidewalk. There was this railing. We went inland. We came back out. Elwood thought we should continue but the street felt very close. Perhaps it was the street. Anyway, traffic moves along at a good clip on 5th and there were a lot of trucks. We’ll go back to Spring. Happily Spring was fairly clear but as we approached 4th, I remembered the sidewalk there is a little goofy. It’s goofy at 3rd, too. We’ll go down to Main. We crossed Pine. I heard someone calling my name. A long lost friend came up. She had seen me on Prendergast–remember Prendergast. She didn’t think that was right so she had been driving around with all the one way streets, looking for a place to park, to check in with me. Not the first time someone has done this. We got to catch up. it was really fine and she reminded me where I was so we could go home. Elwood and she were very appropriate which made the visit even more enjoyable.

Spring

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

No, not that spring! It’s 20 something outside, snow-covered and probably more snow on the way. The lake isn’t frozen and has to get another 10 degrees colder in order to freeze. The spring I’m talking abut is the one that causes Elwood to jump up. He was especially springy at church on Saturday. I didn’t think about his gentle leader. This week was much springier than last so it will become pro forma to have him wear it. The gentle leaders are worn much tighter. I think it has something to do with pressure points. It’s supposed to calm the dog. Calm in church would be good. Sunday we went out. I stood at the curb. Elwood did his thing off the curb. All was going well until Elwood bounced on long leash. There was a pole and me and him and then I was down. Despite the snow, sidewalks are hard. Elwood was a bit surprised but not upset. I got up. We got ourselves back together again. So far, we haven’t had a repeat which is very good. I transferred the big bag of food into the new plastic container with locking lid. Elwood couldn’t resist an open bag of dog food so I’m pleased the new container holds it all. I can lift a full container, too, so can put it up where he can’t figure out how to open it. I don’t know if he can figure it out but I don’t want to know.

Contentment

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood really likes being curled up between my feet. No climbing. No poking at my hands bone in mouth while I try to use the keyboard. I will end of using this laptop computer in my lap. Yesterday I put him on tie down while I talked with someone. He whimpered and fussed until I settled him down. Then he was quiet, for about an hour. He is getting to be like most people–a service lasts an hour so at the end of that time, let’s get on with it. Elwood did very well this morning by identifying the street despite the snow covering. This is very gratifying. I depend on my dog to identify walks and streets when they are snow-covered or poorly defined. He’s really coming along.

Safe Streets

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Safe streets have taken on a whole new meaning to me this week. We did not get the snowstorm of many inches of snow that was coming this way. Instead, we got an inch or thereabouts which basically means it’s inconvenient to walk around town. Today, being clear though cold, I bundled up in hat, scarf and gloves to take Elwood out. While out, I decided a walk would be possible given that no percipitation was falling. We walked down Pine Street. Clear in spots but very icy in others. We turned at 2nd. The same. We walked up Main. Not bad. When we got to 3rd, Elwood made a quick right-hand turn back to the apartment. I had planned to walk up to 4th, but well, if he wasn’t interested … When we crossed Pine, it was clear to me Elwood was planning on going home. I don’t know if Elwood just thought I was disoriented and took the long way home or wether he judged the streets to be unsafe. In the first case, I’m dumb. In the second, he’s smart. Elwood didn’t worked in snow as part of his training. He may just think it is an aboration to be endured before better working conditions materialize. He could be right.

Update

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

On Saturday we were able to get out and walk. If the rain we have had was turned into snow, I don’t think we would dig out until June. Elwood did very well on our walk, down 2nd, up Prendergast, across on 4th and back down Main to 3rd. He did think Potter’s Alley might be the route off of 4th, but that is, as Patience once remarked, a better endeavor with a skate board than a dog. It was damp, nasty and cold by the time we went to church. I tried something new—putting the gentle leader on Elwood during the service. I also used the flexi lead to continue to get him (and me) used to it. He was relatively good though the Peace continues to be an opportunity to stand with the pack. I’m not standing at all at this point, focusing instead on keeping him down. When we got to Communion, Elwood decided to investigate the pew cushions. Ok. Laying across the pew cushions isn’t great but if he’s quiet … Taking the cup in my right hand is an adventure. I can’t even find my mouth with my right hand. Fortunately, the assisting minister is well-trained and neither lets go of the cup nor hesitates to guide the cup to my mouth. And then, Elwood flops to the floor in perfect form, jerking my whole body. Wine splashes on my face, my sweater. Someone is now seeing if they can get the wine out of my sweater. After the service, someone comes over to offer a ride home because of the inclement conditions. No, we’ll walk. It’s not snowing. It’s not really raining, just misting, and it is more complicated to accept a ride than walk. We leave the church and Elwood finds the good folks getting into their car. He dashes over. Did I want a ride after all? Well, apparently, Elwood understood more of the conversation than I thought. Time to refocus Elwood on his work. Rant: And then there was the girl at the corner of 3rd and Main when we were going to church who bounces across Main and says, Hi, Puppy! and Elwood jumps on her. I’m trying to position myself at the rounded ramp to cross 3rd. I have a dog who now lunges out into the street. Stop! Let’s get re situated here. Let’s check traffic again. Why do people talk to my dog?

Cold and Snowy

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

When I woke up this morning, the radio said it was 14 degrees. Brr. This was Elwood’s first real test of working in snow. Curbs are hard to find. It is icy in places. He moves fast so I had to concentrate on slowing him down. Secondly, I had to find the curbs. I was doing okay for a while, then we had a crossing or two where Elwood had veered. This is not all his fault. The curb cuts are not always one for each street but at the point, one ramp for the two right angled streets and these are difficult for dogs. We went to a favorite restaurant of mine. It was Elwood’s first trip. We found the restaurant okay. We sat at a table by the window. The server removed a chair so Elwood would have plenty of room. He wanted to sit up and look out the window. So long as he didn’t wiggle, I allowed it. He wasn’t bothering anyone. On the way home we had trouble picking up one of the curb cuts and had to wade through some snow to cross. A bit sloppy but as I always say: No honking horns, no screeching of brakes, no broken glass. We were fine. Elwood is still having difficulty understanding that in church people move around but he is to stay still.

Accessibility or Not

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

What caused me to sign out of Skype is not important, just start here with me on this one. I try to log back in. I discover I’m using Skype 3.0. This is unaccessible so I reinstall the program and reinstall 2.5. I click on a yes box and discover I have reinstalled 3.0. Uninstall. I install 2.5 again and say no, I do not want to upgrade. In all cases, I come to a sign in screen which is unaccessible. I can’t find a password box. I cannot tab through the options. I cannot click on the sign in button, hoping my password is stored somewhere in some unknown folder and file in 100gb of laptop. So,until a sighted person comes along who may be able to unscramble this, Skype is inoperable on this computer. Sigh.

Greetings

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I had fun today. I wrote an email to Elwood’s sister Eiffel in his name, detailing Elwood’s recent activities and sending sis birthday greetings. I just received a response in Eiffel’s name for Elwood. Elwood seemed uninterested while Eiffel detailed her helpful ways … picking up paper and removing socks from laundry hooks. Good news … Eiffel is getting on well with the previous dog guide, Valerie, a golden retriever.

Snow

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Well, not really snow. More like heavy frost, a covering, icy. Off we go. Elwood has never worked in snow and ice. Fortunately, he grew up where he has already encountered what it is. And like my other dog, snow is good. I’m wondering how he will understand that human beings do not have 4-paw drive. My shoes held up. Elwood held up. Even I held up. We made our excursion without anyone falling down. Hurray!

Silly Dog

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Today Elwood was quite funny.

When we got into the car to go to church, Elwood tried sitting on my lap. He has done this more since he got his tail caught in the door. After I convinced him to get into the foot well, he positioned his nose under the dash and left his harness in my lap–opposite of what is usually done. During the sermon, Elwood fell asleep. Good. Well, not so good. He started dreaming. His feet were going. His whole body was shaking. He began yipping. He started barking and there wasn’t any correction I could give him. He was asleep. I thought about waking him up, but that really didn’t seem fair. The pastor said afterward: Not only do I put people to sleep. Now I put dogs to sleep, too. Elwood has a rubbery toy called a cong. It’s wider at the bottom than at the top with rings getting smaller and smaller. Both ends are open. Sometimes he carries it in his mouth. Tonight he began racing around, running up and down the hall. Whoever created the sounds in cartoons of animals running and then screeching to a stop knew a dog like el wood. That’s exactly what it sounds like. He also began making noises through the cong. It sounded like a hooting noise. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t get his harness on. I had him give me the cong, put it on the bookcase, he took it back and the running and noisemaking started all over again. He knew I would just laugh. Finally I said to him, We have to get serious, and we did.

Two Today!

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Today is Elwood’s birthday. He is two. I hope this year is filled with good things for him and me and that the terrible 2s do not apply to dogs. Elwood has made a decision: Breakfast first. Park second. I an live with this. God watch over my dog and me.l

Seasoned Traveler

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve had a busy time of it. Elwood and I left at 4:30 a.m. for the airport to go to my son’s wedding. The flights themselves were uneventful. The ground processing was slow and frustrating. We learned it’s a half an hour walk from Terminal C to Terminal A in Detroit. Elwood was terrific at the wedding and the reception. Lots of people didn’t even know a dog was present. That’s an important test for me … Does my dog know when it’s important to behave? Elwood learned the hotel pretty well … where the elevator was, how to go in and out and how to get to the restaurant. He really preferred to show me the stairs, but they were in his direct line of sight while the elevator was at an angle. Fast food restaurants continue to be problematic–too much food on the floor and too much activity. Elwood is very definitely a pack animal. If anyone around him is up, he believes he should be up. Today a friend sewed both his mats since he is thinking they might be fun to chew on. He has bones. He has other toys all of which have good chew value. Today I caught his tail in the car door. I’m not proud of this. Elwood shrieks quite effectively. afterward, he stayed in my lap. I’m not going back down there on that floor!I finally convinced him otherwise. He certainly is quite dramatic and milks his advantage for all its worth.

On Socks and Mats and Colds

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

It’;s absolutely dreary here. I read the weekend forecast for Milwaukee and it will be the same there. So much for concern about snow. So much for my plan about coat, etc. We did have a touch of snow this morning. More slippery than anything else to say about it. I’ve been dealing with a cold or some thing so have given being sick priority to get done before Friday. It has blown a hole in what I had planned to do this week. No energy at all. I have made myself walk with Elwood some as he would be unmanageable otherwise. He has had to be patient about park times and has done really well. At a friend’s house, Elwood found another dog’s play sock and had great fun with it Unfortunately, when I had difficulty getting up this morning, he used his mat as a sock and chewed a corner. I have a second one on order so this one can be sewed. 1000 teal poop bags came today. They’re all contained in one box that is quite manageable as are the bags so we’re set for a good while. I elected not to order rose or green ones.

Merry Christmas

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

A crazy day yesterday, Christmas Eve. Morning worship in Fredonia. Elwood was fantastic. Elwood does not care for baking. It means he has to watch from his tie down and I take forever! Then on to a festive supper with friends. They had cats–cats who wanted to play with Elwood’s tail! Then the service… We went early because our ride had to be at choir practice. Elwood doesn’t care for classical music in the big church. He was very antsy. Also, people kept coming over and that made him bouncy, too. Then waiting, waiting, waiting while the special music was performed before the service. I have only encountered this in Jamestown. Then onto the service itself. I read. Elwood bounced around. I kept focused on the reading. Then he laid quietly throughout the rest of the service. Curiously, no one fetched us for communion. Then more waiting around for the ride home. I would have had us walk, but we had stuff to carry. A late night park (actually, at 1 a.m., and we slept in. Now we’re off to a.m. service and communion, I hope. Merry Christmas!

What a Week!

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood and I have had a busy week. Elwood, apparently, has not previously had exposure to church. Having gone Saturday night, he was able to survive the Cantata at the Methodist church. He did jump up periodically when everyone else did and when there was applause. We are learning other people’s cars. I have asked my friends to remember what worked. Then there was Wednesday night and Thursday morning … Elwood found a traditional Vespers service with chanting and candlelight more than he could take. He wriggled out of his harness and climbed on the pew and me. Holding him with one hand, I unbuckled the harness and got it back on him to settle him back down again. My pewmate said: I figured out you didn’t want a lighted candle to hold. We had practiced resting in the pew alone every day. What I hadn’t planned on Thursday morning was that everyone gets up. Elwood got up, too. I ended up with the flixileash wrapped around Elwood, the pew and myself. More practice needed. We have a new place at the table for doughnuts afterward. We have to sit far away from the person who comes with dog biscuits in his pocket and who cannot restrain himself. Children are always better. They know about rules. Bible study was also a trial. The children had been in the room with cookies the night before. Park is going better. Elwood prefers the elevator to the stairs. Today we took a walk, down 2nd Street, up Prindergast, across on 5th and back down Main. After doing all this walking, Elwood suddenly made a turn. He had found St. Luke’s. He was convinced that was where we were going. It took a lot of persuading, after a lot of praise, to convince him to pass it up. We have elected to go to the late service Christmas Eve. I didn’t think either of us could manage the early one with the pageant. I’m vesting and reading. Elwood’s first time at the lectern. It’s not hard–I hope. I may finally have gotten the reading sitation changed. It is always announced as Isaiah 35 but it is actually Isaiah 9. Well, we have some work to do and our final park of the evening.

Church

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Today we walked around the neighborhood. I totally missed Pine Street on the other side of 3rd. I will have to re-educate Elwood that this is not a pedestrian mall as I had originally indicated. I figured it out when we had walked too far and then came to North Main. We are still working on the park issue. At the curb is working best and will be more practical long term. We just couldn’t practice at the Seeing Eye. It’s the moves which we could have practiced along with the cars, stationary and otherwise, we we couldn’t practice. Elwood is eating though I cut back his food since we are not on school schedule so sooner or later something has to happen. We went to the 5 o’clock service. Elwood thought it was quite peculiar that I wanted him to turn right after the building and didn’t understand that the sidewalk with steps was his goal. I am teaching him to lay under the pew. Elwood was not thrilled about this. I spent a lot of the service putting him back in position. Fortunately, Episcopalians believe in assigned seats so I will be able to teach Elwood where to sit.

FIRST DAY HOME

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

It has been a long day perhaps because we have been tied to each other. We have been out to breakfast, greeting old friends and learning how to behave when there is so much to sniff. We’ve been to the post office and walked around a little. We met our mobility instructor who said we looked good. Elwood had been laying down some paw and avoided the ramp at City Hall. Our greatest accomplishment was at park. We have found appropriate places and Elwood is relaxing enough to do what is necessary. It took 36 hours to get something to clean up. This is normal but nerve racking. Our biggest laugh was having me climb into the back of the truck for grocery shopping. It’s a long way up and the seat is low inside so ballast is an issue. Being young and thin, Elwood bounds in and out. He did take a turn at the driver’s seat. We laughed and laughed. Elwood also knows a few handy commands like … inside. It means find your way into the building. For us, it means find the door to the apartment building from the street.

Home Again

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

A long day … up at 5:30. Left the Seeing Eye at 9. Flight delayed. Arrived Buffalo 2 pm. With collecting baggage, tending to Elwood’s needs, a midafternoon meal, we got back to Jamestown at 5. Unpacked. Ate again. Out with Elwood twice. Getting into a routine is difficult. Writing on my desktop is also difficult. We’re off to bed.

Going Home

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

This morning the local students left. They are driven home by an instructor who does some work with them around home. We had to say good-bye to one of our classmates. Our class list has names and addresses but not phone numbers. I asked if she could take down my number. She said her equipment was packed. Then I had an idea–I went to the map room where there is a braille machine and wrote down my numbers. This morning we went to the hospital. Elwood was indifferent to the hospital personnel and equipment he saw. Our greatest excitement was the electronic revolving door. I am mostly packed. What is left I am still using. It’s raining and I’m wearing my crocks which means the rain can come through the holes. My sneakers are almost dry, sitting on the window sill. This afternoon we will take the bus. This brings me to going home. Here are some things to remember.

Low Places

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Sunday was a busy day though no trips are scheduled. Several of us went out on the leisure path in the morning. I went twice around–2/3 of a mile. Gail and Pete came. We went out on the leisure path and did a turn, then came inside. When the lounge got crowded, we went back outside. Very mild weather here and there was a bench in the sun. Pete passed on another turn round the path, but Gail and I persevered. After supper, I went for a night walk in Morristown. Elwood has never worked at night and sometimes I walk in the dark, especially in winter. He did great. I even had the sense I knew where I was since we traveled on the same streets but in a different configuration. I had a chance to ride in a mini van and review dog-in-car. With air bags, it will be important for Elwood to lay down while traveling. It is being recommended that traveling longer distances in a crate is helpful. All the puppies have been crate trained. This morning we were awakened to Garth Brooks and “Low Places”. walked around the courthouse. We got to go through two metal detectors which was the real point of the exercise as well as working through some groups of people. Elwood went to the vet because of a bump near his eye. It’s being analyzed, but the vet thinks it is a pimple. I guess when you’re a teenager, you get acne even if you are a dog! Actually, they are calling it a whitehead. We went through a revolving door, walked inbetween two men having a heated discussion about football and that was Monday so far as trips go. In the evening we had a long lecture. One of the instructors was giving us some history. I can’t remember our founder’s first husband’s name, she said. All I can remember is his last name: Wood. It was L. I said. Oh, she said, L-Wood? The class broke up. The instructor took a while to get it. As it turns out, the man’s name was Walter Woods. Tuesday was a zoo. First, we had to put the dogs’ booties on for a walk in style.. Then we went to the coffee shop–two drinking coffee while the other one worked. I was last to work. Elwood had been good–because he was busy chewing a hole in one of his booties. He did great work in one of the stores with tight clearances. I met a woman on the street who asked how I knew she was there. I didn’t–just that Elwood was sniffing something. In the afternoon, I had my exit interview with the president, went to the vet to hear about Elwood’s health history and our class went for ice cream Sundaes. Our instructor thought it would be good to do some sedan work. We had one person and one dog in front, a second dog and person in the back and I was also to get into the back seat with Elwood. I got in. Elwood got in. The dog already there thought it was a bit tight and growled. The instructor decided to spin Elwood around, which meant Elwood was on my lap while spinning. However, he didn’t quite fit because when we closed the door, he jumped onto my lap. We got in the van to go to town. When we went for ice cream, I went outside but didn’t know where the van was. Another classmate joined us. A classmate in the van called to us. Oh, no, I thought. She’s driving! Today the local students go home. An instructor drives them and settles them in. We are all frantically figuring out how to get everything in our suitcases including 8 pounds of dog food. Last night at park two of us stepped in our dog’s output. We were instructed to come to the wall and hold up our shoes for inspection. not like that, the instructor said. Like a horse. He untied our offending shoes and left us there, one shoe off, one shoe on, holding onto the wall. He was gone a long time. Water wasn’t enough to get my shoe clean. It is still quite wet. Fortunately, I have another pair of shoes!

Picture

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Gail took this picture of Elwood and me. http:/pics.livejournal.commerrillnelwoodgallery00001bkr

Fasten Your Seat Belts

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday we had a Meet and Greet exercise whereby some of the instructors came up to shake my hand and Elwood had to remain sitting. Is this a wedding with the mother of the bride? one of the instructors asked. Sunday morning worship, I replied. He came, sobbing, saying A wonderful sermon. He greeted another student, thanking her for such a lovely wedding, then he came back to me, shaking my hand, telling me what a wonderful sermon for the funeral. The task was serious, the play acting hysterically funny. We shopped at a pet store and went to Wall-Mart for our afternoon outing. One of the dogs jumped up on the counter when his person was checking out. This morning we did some country-style work in a subdivision–walking along people’s front yards, around parked cars, onto short pieces of sidewalk, lining myself up to cross a street. Afterwards, we went to an A&P to practice shopping cart work. We’ve been doing it right, shoppers, guide in front of the basket, person and dog behind. Elwood left the bread and the meaqt alone. Clerks crack me up. They are giving you instructions with the debit card because you’re blind and then keep saying, Now press the green button. I was able to get my wash done–not a lot to do because of the early instances of emergency washes. Lunch was a cafateria line with a tray and silverware wrapped in napkins. Our sandwiches and dessert were wrapped in foil, our macaroni salad in a cup with a lid and our soup in a double coffee cup with a lid. Then we worked our dogs to our tables while carrying the tray against our bodies. I said to our server, who also does housekeeping, You must hate it–all this trash to pick up. She replied, I don’t hate. I can handle it once a month. Drinks were served at the table. This afternoon we practiced in the airline seats provided by Continental. These were first class seats though with lots of room for dogs, even in the bulk heads. We read our puppy profiles. Elwood was raised by a veteran puppy raiser–an older couple with grandchildren who came to visit. Some reports have lots of information. Sadly, neither of my puppy reports have been too detailed. My instructor said the training report she gets was not particularly detailed either. We changed tables again at supper for the rest of the time here. I don’t handle this well. This table will take some getting used to. I tire of the cross examinations. Just let me be! This evening we learned how to massage our dogs. Elwood wasn’t sure about this at first. He mellowed over time. We listened to this album: A Gathering Of Eagles

Hound Dog

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Today we go to the train and return on the bus. It is very cold. We were awakened at 5:30 by Elvis and an announcement that it was 17 degrees out–and blowing. Park was better this morning: no wet shoes, no wet jeans, poop in a straight line. Yesterday we did some country work, walking on a road without sidewalks. More trouble than it’s worth! Our second trip was back on South Street, into stores, walking on the Green in the center of town. The graduates who live in town don’t walk on the Green because it is impossible to judge the traffic and use the traffic islands to get there. Our Elm Street solo went fine. I partnered with another woman who found memorizing the route and the traffic overwhelming. She lives in the country. We had to work around a construction site–an unplanned barrier. I realized how strange it is to hear construction since there is not a lot of it in Jamestown. I think the day laborers were talking about us. I think I heard the word perror as I passed. Later in the trip, there was a dog guide backup at the planned barrier. We were 4 of 4. Elwood didn’t even bother to go up to the barrier. he just made the turn. We had to wait for traffic to step out into the road. In the afternoon, we rode escalators and elevators in a department store. At my final massage session, the woman said everyone told her they were tired. She was doing a lot with leg muscles. I learned that although my knees ached, it is probably the thigh muscles which ache. Elwood is being very stupid about going to his mat. He is very clear about staying there while I bring the food. In the afternoon, we have to tell them to stay put while we fix dinner. He is very clear about what gets dinner there fast–or he thinks he’s tied up–I don’t know which yet. I managed to tie him up in the flixline–25 feet of tape measure. It reminded me of the time I got Caitlin wrapped up in a microphone wire during worship. Later … The train was late so we took it both ways and will leave the bus to another day. It was very cold waiting on the platform. Elwood has been taught to avoid the edge of the platform when there is no train. A forward command from several feet away causes him to immediately turn left or right. We needed to use the stairs both ways to get on and off the train.When we got back, Elwood stopped at a very high curb. He refused to go off of it. Who knows! It might have been a platform. Hey, he was at a train station. Finally, we got him into the parking lot. Train station: Elwood 100%, Merrill, about an 82. Platforms make me nervous though I traveled NJ Transit and Septa 7 to and from LTSP for a semester. Rusty’s sermonreflects on adventures, beginning with Merrill ’n Elwood.

Local Color

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday: a second go-round of the Elm Street route. There’s a ditty for the street names. I’ll capitalize the street names:

The King of Pine Wil not [Mont] Spring over Dumont to South.

Pine–we cross it twice, has a light and so does Spring. It’sw 1.5 miles long so we walked 3 miles yesterday. When we got back, my neighbor stopped by. We are still tied to our dogs. Her dog proceeded to urinate on the floor, soaking my bedspread and coat. Housekeeping was alerted about the spread. I went off to the laundry room. I fell asleep so didn’t get the coat dried before afternoon park. I used my polartek vest which was enough. On my way to the laundry downstairs, I ran into (literally) the Seeing Eye president and his dog. He apologized for interfering with my exit to park. We’re on our way back, I told him. Our shoes are safe. For evening park, I couldn’t locate my gloves. I have since found them. Elwood is a trial at park. I wash my shoes regularly. The instructors are starting to laugh at me. I’m always jumping back from him while I’m trying to unharness him. He also walks when he poops. I am usually standing in the middle of a circle by the time he’s done. The trick will be to stop him from walking while not stopping him from pooping. We’re off for another turn around the block, so to speak.

Elm Street Route

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

We started to learn the Elm Street route. It is basically pie-shaped with the north side of South Street forming the crust of the pie. Elm Street forms one side of the slice and five streets:

King Pine Wilmont Spring Dumont

are on the other side. It’s cold and windy today. We passed day laborers looking for work. They must be very cold as their streets were shady and the wind was blowing. I was there about 8:30 a.m. Have they been standing around since 3 or 4 a.m.? Elwood has some do-overs–a dog distraction and a barrier of the construction tape across the sidewalk variety. We are learning how to work together. Elwood is sensitive and needs support to assertively push me if he needs to go around an obstacle. I need to help him to gain confidence to do this. We also had a traffic check–the class supervisor drove a van toward us, causing Elwood to back up. I need to learn how to back up with him. These are staged and I know they are coming. they are carried out on the streets and in driveways. The cars and vans the staff drive have the Seeing Eye logo on them. Sometimes they get stopped by the public, wondering why they are trying to run over the people with dogs. They have to explain what they are doing. Once when an instructor was working with someone without a dog but with the harness, someone came up to the instructor and said, k, Didn’t they used to have dogs doing this? Have you replaced them with human beings?

Sunday and Monday Morning

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

On Sundays, no trips are scheduled. It’s a day of rest and relaxation. This sounds as if we just sit arounde and do nothing. Nothing is farther from the truth. We were awakened at 6:30, one hour later. No music thankfully. I got a load of wash in before breakfast. After breakfast, I went to the tech center because my laptop was not connecting to the internet. Neither were the computers in the tech center. They had some sort of fire wall problem which was later fixed. I also learned how to use a treadmill. Then it was time for a meeting. We learned about the new gentle leaders, a flexi line and put rough weather booties on our dogs. One of the other class members and I were on the floor with our labs who were rolling around, wondering what these items were. We all got to laughing. We all hope the first couple of mornings we think we need to use these that we have plenty of time to suit up. Afterwards, another class member and I went out onto the leisure path. It’s a third of a mile long and makes a loop through some of the 60 acres of the Seeing Eye property. We went around twice, each of us taking the lead for one trip. Then it was time for Sunday dinner at 1 p.m. After that I had a 60-minute massage. Lots of tight places. 3 p.m. I tried to take a nap. My instructor wantede to do obedience. I turned her away. A class member checked in. I did the same. There was Elwood’s dinner and park, my dinner and a run to put the last load of wash in, a hasty reading for yet another meeting, upstairs for the meeting itself, back downstairs for the wash, back outside for park, and then back to look in on a classmate who was not feeling well.
I was given some more information about Elwood. He was born January 8, 2005. He is 22 inches tall and weighs 60.7 pounds. This makes him about Caitlin’s size when I first got her but he seems smaller. You can judge. Caitlin wieghed about 76 pounds when she died. Today we are going to learn a new route and do it solo on Wednesday. Mr. Elwood has expressed interest in my laptop this morning. He is beginning to recognize that my attention to it is inattention to him. He is also starting to take my hands off the keyboard.

Solo

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood and I had our solo today. We were second of two so we sat in the van for a time. Elwood jumped into my lap, all cuddly. I’m learning that he is a sneak and a cheat so don’t play poker with him! Licking my face also means an opportunity looking out the side and back windows of the van. It is a gorgeous day here. The storm came through quickly last night. By the time I got outside for our solo walk, I could open my light winter coat. The sun is out. We had a very successful trip. Elwood pulled well. I understand he took advantage of me. Remember, Elwood is a cheat and a sneak. I thought we had a tight place by a tree. We didn’t. Elwood just wanted to sniff. He also did some air scenting and slipped under a flag which brushed the top of my hair. I caught him at taking a shortcut through a gravel area with trees and made him do it right. Otherwise, he was great. He is tired though. He laid down on the van floor after coming in up and over my lap. Getting out of the van, I slipped and sat down hard.. Elwood bounced out of the van so we had to do it all over again correctly. He’s been quiet. We don’t have a trip scheduled until Monday morning though we can take a turn arounde the leisure path this afternoon and tomorrow which will be very nice. The leisure path was closed due to snow cover when I was here last so this is a welcome treat. We also have to do laundry and get some serious writing done.

Difficult Day

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

A difficult day today. It was rainy in the morning and it was warm. Came back drenched–Elwood, too. I was paired up with one student in the A.M. and paired up with a different student this afternoon. It was so dark and the sidewalks were crowded by 3 p.m. Elwood worked well avoiding most obstacles and being careful in tight places, however, he wasn’t pulling. I’m working with the instructor and the class supervisor. We’ll see how Elwood does tomorrow at our test and at the beginning of the week with a day and a half of rest. It’s worrisome. Pray for restorative rest and good work habits.

Morning People

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

I have never been a morning person. I can get up. I can do what is necessary, however, I am not a morning person. Today I was awakened at 5:30 a.m. with Frank Sanatra singing about coffee in Brazil. A bit jarring. Big band orchestration but not a young Sanatra singing. I stagger out of bed and start looking for clothes. The instructor arrives with food and with instructions. “What?” “Here’s a heart guard pill. Take it from your shoulder down to your dog and tell him ‘Take it.’” Something new at 5:30 am? My responses must have been genetic. II sounded just like my mother in the morning. I usually don’t sound like her, but in the morning … Well, she’ll have to come and search the floor. I dropped the pill while trying to give it to a very excited dog. Note to self: Be more firm with Elwood. He can obey even before breakfast. We have different mothers.

South Street Route

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Today we started a new route. It’s called the South Street Route because it does have four blocks of South Street along the square as one part of it. Morristown is under construction. They are adding lamp posts in the center of the wide sidewalk. Also the department store Epstene’s is being torn down and a new development will go in there. Part of it will be a parking garage where the Seeing Eye vans can park and a new lounge. The lounge has places for the dog to stay and people. I can’t tell you anything about it because I’ve never been there. For one reason or another it has been closed when I have trained. Along the route today we had a traffic check. I screwed up so we had another one–a car pulling in front of us in a driveway. We also had an unplanned check–a quiet car came out of nowhere in front of us while crossing a street. We also delt with clearance issues. A barrier of cones had been set up. Elwood had to squeeze around between them and some bushes. Later, he went too close to some bushes so we had to rework that. We also had numerous distractions–some planned and some not. Elwood did OK on some and not so well on others. That goes for me, too. We’ve added an extra park time for Elwood before our afternoon trip. Relieving is a major topic of conversation here and we spend a great deal of time concentrating on it. Tonight we began touching our dogs. Elwood’s harness has been temporarily modified so we can get a better feel for one another. This makes a big difference when we walk together. He pulls better and I can do my part of keeping the tention. This afternoon Elwood thought about escaping from the van. I didn’t have a tight hold on him so I dived across the back of the van to grab him. Today we worked without any jackets it was so warm. I understand this will change Friday. My massage this afternoon was very nice. She worked on my calves which have been worked hard. I have a longer appointment Sunday afternoon.
Well 5:30 AM comes around quickly. Not only do I have to get up, I have to feed the dog, get dressed, get harnessed up and get outside which includes a nasty set of stairs. My spy thriller also awaits.

Harness All the Time

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Elwood is sstarting to get used to how life will be. Some lab behaviors are popping out. For example: Elwood has a fondness for bananas. He pops up at the breakfast table when my neighbor gets hers. Today I had one. I had to resettle him several times during breakfast. At lunchtime, which is really dinner, Elwood kept bouncing up because we had fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. Settling a dog down with finger-licking-good hands is a challenge. A note on the food: It’s good to be back in New Jersey. The hamberger came without mayo. It was jewish style cole slaw at dinner today. The staff is laughing at me. My instructor drives with NJ abandon. It’s good to spend some time back in my old environment. Right now I am waiting for my instructor to come to oversee our first trip in the house with Elwood in harness. To date, I have been heeling him inside on just a leash. After tonight’s meal, we will go everywhere in harness except to our own lounge area since this is considered being at home. Later Elwood is very hesitant in harness in the house. In fact, he semed to be quite shocked that he was expected to work inside as I have been heeling him to the door. Unfortunately, we don’t have the right tention on the harness when he walks slowly–a definite no-no. Dinner was fairly uneventful. I did get a coffee cup with a large nose on it that stuck out which had to make the rounds of the table to show everyone. On our way back, we had some problems. I was focused on the route. The instrucgtor still on hall monitor duty kept reminding me of all Elwood’s infractions and my inattention to them. Hey! I was trying to keep track of how I was holding the handle (which is different than I was holding it before) and keeping the tention, or at least trying to. After we got back to our room, I took the shopping bag with Elwood’s grooming tools and we went down into the basement where the grooming room is. (We are not allowed to groom the dogs anywhere else.) We had some difficulty finding the room and doing the clearances right so correct and repeat. The grooming room has a bench running around the outside so the dogs can stand there while you stand on the floor. There are windows to the hallway. I stood on the bench to find the hooks for the harness. They are at the ceiling. Elwood must have thought it was quite peculiar to be told to sit on the floor while I climbed up. Then I called him to me and jumped down. The bag being a nuisance, crinkly sounding and a hindrance to hand signals, I ditched it and put the tools in my pockets for the return journey. And yes, it’s a journey! Each landing is a stop and forward and there are two landings per staircase. The van is high. There are several steps to get up into it. There are no straps, no arm rests to hang onto. This morning, while I was getting up into the back in preparation for calling Elwood to me, I slipped and ended up sitting on the van’s floor. No carpet either! The other student and I laughed and laughed. I wasn’t hurt. I was coming back down because Elwood wasn’t sitting at rest. Each time he gets up, I have to come back and resettle him. We worked in pairs this afternoon. This means two students walking the same route at the same time. We meet at the curbs and then the other one takes the lead. We were doing okay. We were waiting for our traffic check. The class supervisor pulled into the driveway ahead of me, bumper scraping the ground. I jumped. Elwood remained calm, stopping. Good dog!

Life Here

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

We are awakened at 5:30 a.m. over an intercom in our rooms. Then it’s hurry, hurry, hurry. Go to the bathroom. Get some clothes on. In the middle of this, someone comes with your dog’s food. Add water. Give it to your dog. Elwood dives at the dish and is eating in mid air. My instructor said I should make him sit–he’ll do that, then wait to be told he can eat when I put down the bowl. I can put down the bowl, but then, charge! Meanwhile, I am finishing getting dressed enough to go outside and filling his water bowl with 3 cups of water. At this point, his input is regulated. In the kennels, the dogs relieve whenever they feel the need. They have been housebroken in their puppy families, but may need a review. Then it’s off to park, often on a dead run. Elwood seems to be getting into a better routine with his body so maybe the initial stress is wearing off. He was a tad constipated. Right now we are waiting for people breakfast at 7. Today we will go on two more trips along a residential street. We’ve been told we will have our first traffic check this afternoon–a staff driven car will be in a driveway across the sidewalk. There will be more of these later. Last night we had a presentation of dog fears. Earlier, there was one on correcting your dog. These take about an hour. We also have to groom our dogs at least once a day. There is down time, but it is in small increments.

Elwood

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s the news you’ve all been waiting for. Elwood is a male yellow Labrador Retriever. He’s not a big dog. At the moment he is laying quietly under the computer desk. He hasn’t decided to like me yet. I’m okay when I bring food. He will be quite affectionate. When he forgets he doesn’t like me, he jumps in my lap and kisses me. Then he remembers he doesn’t like me, gets down and watches the door, hoping our instructor will come.

Weekly Message - Working

Mon, 02 May 2005 00:00:00 +0000

I shared this message with The Judson Fellowship: An [[https:/www.abc-usa.org][American Baptist Church]] and member of the
[[https:/www.wabaptists.org][Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists]] this morning in Jamestown, New York.

Biblical texts for today:

Psalm 66;
John 14:8-14.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Can you believe it? Can you really believe it? Jesus says to us today: “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to [God] (John 14:12 NRSV).

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’ll add the headers later so this post actually works!

Right now I want to see if ~~Vim~~ works in the terminal on stormux. I was having a lot of trouble but maybe that has changed.

I will probably use Vim more in the console than in the terminal, but it’s nice to think it will behave from now on.

Everyone'ss A Critic

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

You might think that, being blind, I have no interest in paintings or other forms of visual art. You would be wrong about that. I’m fascinated by art and what other people bring to the pictures. Last year people at the “Stations of the Windows” Friday Lenten worship services at[[https:/stlukesjamestown.org][St. Luke’s Jamestown]]described the stained glass windows. They were so enthusiastic it grew dark before we could finish the window descriptions and the service.

Brilliant

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been using text mode to write these blog entries. Additionally, I have been using [[http:/www.daringfireball.netprojectsmarkdown][markdown]] to format them. As I do not have markdown enabled yet in emacspeak and because I am unable to install pandoc on the pi, I’ve been copying them to my Vinux machine for processing and posting.

I’ve discovered how to create a web page and convert it to html. This post is a test case.

A Quiet Sunday with Emacspeak

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

*** Introduction
When the Windows Subsystem for Linux first came online, I installed it immediately. Using a native Windows screen reader on a Linux system is not ideal. Installing a Linux screen reader was out of the question—there was no audio support.

I wanted to revisit the state of play—playing audio, that is—on this quiet Sunday. I had nothing planned, and my ride to church fell through due to illness.

A Spirit of Cowardice

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have sought various ways to be connected to Jesus.

Prayer lists.
Devotionals.
Prayer beads.
Journals.
Reminders.
Meditation.
Meditation groups.

None of these work particularly well for me.

Recently I have subscribed to a verse of the day email. These can get quite boring and it is easy to read quickly, swipe and be done. The verse is almost immediately forgotten and I go on with my day.

I am not a particularly consistent journaler or blogger. That is easy enough to see. But I’ve decided to try again and write a little on the verse of the day as I am able and see if it can become more habitual.

A Walk in the Park with Nick

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nick and I walked to catch a direct bus home from my salon appointment. It was a nice day and catching the bus near the salon would have required several complicated street crossings and a bus transfer.

I had trouble connecting with my GPS. In the end, I think I hadn’t turned on my remote for my hearing aids. As a result, I was not fully engaged with exactly where we were. Nick was so excited to go down new streets. He became impatient with all my stopping and fiddling with technology.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I write to please myself and if I can inspire, help or make you laugh, that pleases me.

On these pages, you will find a range of material:

autobiographical pieces
essays
poetry
fiction, mostly fantasy/science fiction
technical info especially directed toward the visually impaired user
sermons and other spiritual writing

I have worked as a programmer and as a Christian minister. I have been blind since an early age. I am now retired.

City of Gold and Beyond

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here is a summary of this conversation’s worldbuilding developments.

CHRYSOPOLIS AND NEW BYZANTIUM

Chrysopolis is a legendary gold rush site believed to be on New Byzantium’s surface. The name means “gold city” in Greek. It was never quite real, more myth than place, functioning as New Byzantium’s El Dorado. The historical society near where it is thought to be located serves as keeper of the legend. Chrysopolis was part of New Byzantine mythology of greatness and destiny. After the war it became bittersweet, an emblem of lost grandeur.

Computer Archeology

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I am reconstituting this blog with posts that date back twenty years. It’s a daunting task but also amusing, boring, delightful and surprising all at the same time. Today I found an outline of an ebook I started to write on ~~orgmode~~. I don’t have all the files for it, but I want to find what I have and relearn how to use this powerful mode again. The best I can do is have a tag page for it!.I may need to update the files as I will definitely get a chance to find out how well I described what to do.

Conversation About Where in the Galaxy are We

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

my story is entirely fictional. How does any of this potentially map onto our real position in the Milky Way. This is a fun worldbuilding question. Here is how your setup maps onto real galactic geography.

Galactic north is a real concept. It refers to the direction perpendicular to the plane of the Milky Way’s disk, on the side toward the constellation Coma Berenices. Galactic south points the opposite way. So north and south in galactic terms means up and out of the disk, not toward the core or the rim.

Great Day

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Today is a great day for Nick and me.

First of all, we have been together for five years now. Our anniversary was a few days ago, but I’m writing about it now.

Nick and I had a rocky start, but we have been loyal to one another through it all.

Today is an especially wonderful day because we finally got out on a walk together. For the past two weeks or so I have struggled with unhealthy air quality and high levels of grass pollen. Today air quality was in the good range and the pollen counts were low for grass, tree and ragweed. So off we went for our usual daily walk.

Greenies and Romanoi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have no idea where this fits in the book but I keep rerunning this scene in my head and I want to get it down so maybe I can start running a different scene.

I don’t have the connecting pieces of the story but after read Everyone in This Bank is a Thief I figure I can write a story, too, though I don’t plan to publish it.

Ronnie boards a boat at the working harbor in Mulberry Bend. I can’t remember it’s name. Nick is the captain and is dubious about Ronnie as his paying passenger with a cabin on his river freighter.But as time passes as they chug up river, he often stands with her at railing and comments on what they pass.

Holy Name

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I read this webpage today. [[https:/lectionarypage.netYearABC_RCLChristmasHolyName_RCL.html][Holy Name]]

Without a doubt, the hearer of these texts are to concentrate on the name of Jesus and of all the ways we might engage God’s name. But being a more perverse person, that is not where my mind went. In Philippians,Paul says “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” (2:5). What does this mean? I have read these words many times and have often wondered but never stopped to think about them separately. Yes. Yes. Every knee should bow and all that, but what would it mean to have the same mind as Jesus? The point is Jesus’ servanthood, Jesus’ willingness to do God’s will, to be God with us rather than God apart from us. And so I begin the year thinking I might have a goal this year to come back to these readings and be Christ to those I meet. It’s been a Christian practice forever, but I forget it all the time. People get nervous around other people when they start spouting religion or say things like, “Jesus loves you.” I am not that sort of person. But I can channel it and act as if I had said it. I want to be mindful of having the mind of Jesus this year. Who knows. It might even become habitual. And isn’t that the point of resolutions anyway?)

In Silence

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

For God alone my soul in silence waits; from him comes my salvation. (Psalm 62:1 BCP)

Today the church remembers St. Francis Navier. He wrote to Ignatius that more evangelists were needed to tell those in Asia about Jesus. He believed there were people just waiting to hear the good news. Reading Psalm 62, I can say They are waiting for God alone.

I often think of the people at the time of Jesus as waiting in silence. Perhaps this is because of Slent Night or perhaps because we have the Scripture about the people sitting in darkness which implies silence to me. In any event Francis reminds us that many are just waiting to hear our words of forgiveness, love and salvation.

Journal Entry

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I always come back to the psalms. They are problematic in many ways:

They imagine a world of many gods. YHWH is one among many.
YHWH is aligned with the interests of a particular state rather than the whole world. If IsraelZionJerusalem prospers, that is good. If the enemies of IsraelZionJerusalem have the upper hand, that is bad.
The psalmist is often speaking as a combatant, asking for help in times of physical aggression. Defeating the enemy, bows, arrows, swords and shields come up regularly.

All this being said, I come back to them. Over and over again. Why?

Journal Entry

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Getting back into my 250 Sweet Friday goal for writing every day. I have been greatly distracted this past week by re-imagining my /Notes to Myself/ writing site. Maybe its title is not yet configured for this? Anyway, there has been a lot of work and exploring to set the site up with a blog link and room for adding other writing links in the future.

Along with this project, I have been surfacing older blog posts and starting to go through them. I found [[https:/rillonline.github.ioblog/my-blog-in-2021.html][this one]] that explains exactly what I am doing and feeling right now. The post is dated August, 2021.

Journal Entry

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I spent two days interacting with [[https:/claude.ai][Claude]] concerning two story fragments that were similar enough that I thought they might be combined but I wasn’t sure how. You can read about it [[https:/rillonline.github.iomulberry-bend/index.html][here]]. The interaction was a great way to brainstorm and have my ideas reflected back to me.

The general outline of the story is done. I’m basically a pantser so knowing where I am going is different. I will let the story take me where it takes me.

My Blog in 2021date: Aug 2, 2021

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

As I continue to work with my files, I have been thinking a lot about this blog. I have entries that are over fifteen years old. Rereading these is entertaining. I remind myself of things that happened that I have forgotten. I suppose that is the point of writing: to make a record that I can refer to at some time in the future. But here’s the thing: Is anyone going to scroll back that far to read these entries?

My Writing is in Disarray

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

In some ways, the title says it all.

I have started writing again and the question I asked myself is where I wanted to put what I wrote. I have a love/hate relationship with my WordPress blog. It is difficult to post there and I always want to keep a copy locally.

My best bet is my github site, but it would not build under my new installation of [[https:/getnikola.com][Nikola]] .It looks like I will have to edit every last post (because struggling with the =conf.py= is more than I can handle at the moment.) Revisiting old posts is not a bad thing anyway.

Story Evolution as of June 27, 2026

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

note: This is a conversation with Claude.

I’m ereading files I forgot to convert to md when I moved them into the repository. Hand Fixing org2md is not difficult and it’s a way to slow down and absorb the evolution of the mulberry bend story.1

There are a couple of significant points in the original idea:

the lost girl is mute.
ronnie will make her peace with her situation. as the mb story now opens, ronnie is drifting. she has an opportunity (I have no idea how at this point) to establish herself in these star systems. not sure where yet in the 6 systems. there would be plenty of work for Star and not hard to bring in the old friends over time.

Story Outline

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Setting
- Roman Federation: 6 star systems outside of Coalition space.
  1. Bithynia
  2. Thrace
  3. Propontis
  4. Chalcedon
  5. Pontus
  6. Heraclius
- New Byzantium, a planet in the Bithinia star system Primary setting for Ronnie’s investigations.
- Propontis, location of the Fungusian Network data center. Located on an uninhabited moon, it was built by automated machinery and operated by one of their AI agents.
- The Black Sea, an asteroid belt in the Bithinia system. Site of both legitimate and smuggler shipping operations.
- Thrace, the industrial heart of the Roman Federation. Likely no action takes place in this system in this novel but its products are ubiquitous in areas where living beings interact.
Star and Ronnie arrived at Galada, an asteroid in the Black Sea, and are greeted by Captain William Kidd.
- Ronnie is given a Thracian built PDA which has her ticketing to arrive in New Byzantium City and make her way to the Golden Horn Hotel to meet with the Czarina.
  1. Galada to Strategeon, an orbital platform.
  2. Catch a shuttle to the surface. Maria Notaras is the official name of the spaceportbut the locals just call it the Fig because of its logo.
  3. She travels across the Lycus River from Sychis into the port of on the Ferry Pistis.
  4. From there she takes an electric trolley, Thracian made, to the hotel, noting all the way the sorry state of the infrastructure including the weedy circular drive, pavement in poor repair and the peeling paint and obvious damage to a statue of a robed woman next to a broken and not working fountain in the weedy garden inside the circular drive. It must have been beautiful once. Ronnie will see depictions of this woman throughout her stay. She is the Virgin Mary though religious sentiment seems largely absent from the city.
The war
- It took place approximately 80 years ago.
- Thrace with its industrial base, got tired of New Byzantium’s insistance on its primacy in the cluster.
- Propontis sided with New Byzantium and without any protections, suffered catastrophic loss. Its leadership fled to Heraclius.
- Chalcedon and Pontus remained neutral. Chalcedon has been quietly investing in Propontis and providing the minimum of humanitarian relief to its population, those who were unable to flee.
- For the moment, Heraclius is a black box but it may have intentions on cluster leadership.
- New Byzantium City had been the home of aristocratic government, but royalty and hangerons have relocated to New Constinopal on a different continent. Immigration is greatly restricted.
The Czarina
- We last saw the Czarina in —-. Although not documented, I think she and Kidd have moved several times since then. Although no longer captaining his own spacecraft, Kidd continues to operate in black markets.
- The Czarina has continued to be an information broker wherever she lands and uses social media to drum up interest in controversial areas. She makes a marginal living while projecting her image of faded royalty. In reality, she is a former low-level mobster’s mall who was finally able to breakaway from an abusive relationship and establish her brand. Ronnie and Star know her and Kidd from Ptolemy City where we first meet Ronnie when she was a police detective.
- The Czarina was not able to establish herself in New Constinopal because of immigration restrictions so she has set up in the Golden Horn Hotel, a thread-bare image of its former presteige. She now deals with the local gangs, entrenpenours and reformers, eeking out enough to keep her brand and living expenses going.
- Right now she has hit upon promoting Ronnie’s detective skill to solve the murder of an unknown woman in Five Points on Mulberry Bend, a crime-ridden neighborhood down by the docks. It is generally known that the organized crime uses the port of Deuteronto import black market items.
- The Czarina knew Ronnie and Star were coming to the Black Sea because Kidd has contracted with Star for a delivery lucrative enough to get Star to come.
- Ronnie came along because her investigations had dried up at their previous base.
- The Czarina eeds to be kept in the loop of Ronnie’s investigations by being able to supply Ronnie with more clues and background information.

The Story Idea from 2019

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

From 2019-09-03

The Nanowrimo Prep email arrived in my inbox last week or maybe earlier. I opened it up to find I have access to an entire workbook and a weekly schedule to get ready. I’ve been going through the document. Sadly many of the links were eight broken or not even inside the pdf. Nevertheless, there’s enough there to get started.

I haven’t been able to write the story of Ronnie Camberwell arriving in the Magic Lands and how she got stuck there. Perhaps it is one of those stories that can be eluded to but never written. I remember that Rumpole had such a story.. Eventually John Mortimer wrote it and it was so disappointing. It worked so much better when Rumpole referenced it but kept the details foggy.

Using Checkboxes in Orgmode

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I wrote about [[https:/rillonline.github.ioposts20190828recurring-tasks-in-orgmode/p][Recurring Tasks in Orgmode] previously. Once I had this to-do working properly, I went onto the next task. I wanted to list my ideas for articles and bigger writing projects. In my opinion, I did not need to set this all up as a big list of to-dos. That certainly becomes overwhelming to me.I might just stop writing altogether because the ideas keep coming but the time and patience to write them may not be available at the moment. I do want to be sure I have a stash of ideas to choose from when I am able to sit down and write out a complete article.

Waiting

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m waiting for my parts list so that my Raspberry Pie can be built. Meanwhile, my USB hub and keyboard come today according to UPS.

I talked with Mike on Mangler.I now understand Raspberrian is a distro for the pie based on Debian. It has a graphical user interface which doesn’t curently speak. I’m interested in the console and excited to think my skills in the console will be improved if I work steadily in Pie Land.