[Blindtlk] Grocery shopping, and transportation questions

Sat Oct 9 01:23:59 UTC 2010

My thoughts are interspersed throughout your message.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kerri Kosten" <kerrik2006 at gmail.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>; "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, October 08, 2010 5:43 PM
Subject: [Blindtlk] Grocery shopping, and transportation questions


> Hi All:
>
> I have some more questions about grocery shopping and transportation.
> Instead of making two separate posts, I figured I'd just put all my
> questions in one post...they are somewhat related to each other.
>
> I'll start with the grocery shopping questions.
>
> In the apartment building I live in, there is no elevator.
> Unfortunately I live on the third floor, which is up four flights of
> steps. What is the best way to carry lots of groceries up the steps?
Take two bags at a time, or as many of those plastic bags with handles as 
you can carry.
> Would it be okay, when having lots of groceries to set some of the
> bags on the floor in the hallway by the door, go up with as much as I
> can carry, then come back for the rest?
That depends on how you feel about the security in your building. I 
personally prefer to have the cab or my driver wait in front of the entry 
door, and carry the groceries all the way from the car to the apartment.
Is there any better way to
> carry groceries than in the plastic bags the grocery bagger puts them
> in? There is nothing wrong with those bags. I've been told about burlap 
> sacks that you can carry on your
> shoulder...does this reduce the load much? If you have a hundred pounds of 
> groceries, it will depend on you to figure out if you can carry them in 
> one load or many. This depends on what you are getting, and how much is 
> refridgerated, as the cold items should come up first if possible. I want 
> to make this as easy
> as possible.
>
> How often do you usually go grocery shopping? Hopefully, twice a month. 
> There again, it depends on your life style and available help. When you 
> go, do you just
> get the things you absolutely need, and keep the load as little as
> possible or do you usually take advantage of the fact you are at the
> store and get lots of stuff? It all depends upon what's happening near the 
> time of your grocery trip. You may try recruiting one of those college 
> kids for a shopping run once in a while, in return for a meal out. Kids 
> are always hungry.
>
> My next questions are about transportation. I live in a college town.
> I guess it's your typical college town. It's big enough to be
> considered a small city or large town...we have five Krogers, four or
> more Walmarts...tons of restaurants and bars, two malls...two movie
> theaters. It isn't a major city though.
>
> We do have a bus system but I've never been encouraged to use it. I've
> just been expected to take cabs everywhere.
Learn to use the bus; then you can decide which transport method is 
appropriate. Where I live, I became qualified for paratransit, and I also 
use busses and my wife, now that I'm married. In my single life, it would 
have friends from church or a taxi. Here in Minneapolis, it's not uncommon 
for a cab fare to run $25, for I might add, I use paratransit occasionally, 
and use it for going long distances.a ten mile trip.>
> One of the problems though is that the town is not really a walking
> town...there are parts of it you can walk in but not very many. That's 
> where the church group comes in. Living in Orlando and Tulsa, (not walking 
> towns) I made my friends feel good about helping with rides. When
> things/places are built, often pedestrian accessibility is left out. 
> That's right.
>
> There doesn't seem to be any blind people; there is no NFB chapter. I know 
> what you mean. Back in 1979, the Braille Monitor was my life line.
> So, naturally the majority of the people, including most of the
> students drive. From what I've read on their website, the bus covers
> many areas, but usually until only 6 o'clock, unless it's downtown
> where the students are. I don't live downtown though. Because of this,
> I find myself having to take cabs almost everywhere. Do you have a job 
> holding you there? How about looking for an apartment downtown and moving.
Cabs here are
> about $5-6 each way. Is this normal for a college town? It would cost me 
> around $20 to go from downtown LaCrosse, to Fox street where some 
> relatives live, which is about thirty minutes by car. Is this
> expensive for a cab? No.
>
> Are my only options to either take the bus when it is available or take 
> cabs?
>
> Should I just not worry about the expense and take cabs when and 
> wherever?That's up to you. Like I said, try to use the bus as much as you 
> can and consolidate your trips.
>
> Is learning to use the bus hard or is it as simple as calling and
> asking the right questions?
>
>>From what I can tell, from where I live, in order to take the bus
> again since I'm not in the downtown student area I will have to take
> two buses to get anywhere and it usually takes about two hours. Is
> this normal for a large town/small city?
>
> The closest major city to me is Pittsburgh. There is a bus that goes
> there twice. In order to take a grayhound bus, or AM track train you
> have to somehow get to Pittsburgh. Is the bus going twice daily
> reasonable? Not really, but that's what has happend to ground 
> transportation all over the country. There used to be five greyhound buses 
> from Minneapolis to Duluth, now there are two.
>
> For those of you who live in college towns similar to this how do you
> find a balance between taking cabs, using family and friends, and
> taking the bus?
>
> What is the cost monthly of owning a vehicle compared to taking cabs
> all the time? Forget about owning a car, unles you go into business where 
> it would be really advantageous. Dr. Maurer and his kids had a running 
> contest of keeping track of owning a car, versus taking a cab. According 
> to him, it worked about to be roughly the same. He had more money, so he 
> would hire his kids when needed, and paid them the regular taxi fare I 
> think. I'm sorry to ask this...I've never been told. Remember besides your 
> payment you must consider gas at $1500 or more annually, insurance at 
> least $65 monthly, repairs which sometimes seem to have no limit.
>
> I guess I am just asking these questions because I want to make sure
> I'm not getting screwed so to speak. I don't mind taking cabs, but
> sometimes I feel like I'm just automatically expected to spend the
> money just because...if you know what I mean by that! I've been told
> owning a vehicle is several hundreds of dollars a month when the cost
> of maintaenance, car payments, insurance, and gas is added up but
> again these have just been from sighted people who don't take cabs. They 
> are right. The rest of the story is, now that you own a car, who's going 
> to drive it? You need to run a vehicle a minimum amount of miles to keep 
> itfrom deteriorating from lack of use. Since I have a piano service 
> business, my wife's car gets used for the business on a regular basis. I 
> pay her a fair wage, and I end up hauling the mechanisms around so in my 
> case, I need a minimum length of five feet horizontal for the purpose. 
> When I was single I had a designated driver for my car, because it made 
> sense to do it that way with my business. As someone living by themselves, 
> the answer is, ownership isn't worth the extra money and hassle. It
> seems like most other blind people I know don't take cabs unless they
> absolutely have to and I hate having to do it all the time. Stop whining 
> and count your blessings. In one
> sense I feel like I'm being told to go ahead, don't worry about it,
> owning a vehicle is expensive too...but then on the other hand so many
> blind people don't seem to like doing it. I know each town is
> different...but if I want to go somewhere and it's after 6 and the bus
> doesn't go are cabs or family/friends my only options? I've never gone
> completely broke or run out of money by taking cabs but again...I feel
> as if I'm getting mixed messages and I want to make sure I'm doing the
> right/best thing. From where I live you can't walk anywhere as there
> are several things across the street but it's not actually a street
> but a major six-lane highway...so walking is out. I'm not married and
> live alone. Do those of you who live in towns like this find
> yourselves having to also take cabs more frequently than other blind
> people? I know my questions seem a little crazy but I thought I'd ask
> them all in one post.
>
> Thanks so much!
>
> Kerri
>
> _______________________________________________
> blindtlk mailing list
> blindtlk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindtlk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> blindtlk:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindtlk_nfbnet.org/rpoire%40comcast.net