[nagdu] Here's your dog!

[Pickrell, Rebecca M (IS)]

I think it's just that Braille is so unusual and so mysterious in its
production that a person not used to seeing it simply can't understand
that it would be discarded. 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Ann Edie
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 5:37 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Here's your dog!

No, to your question about the guide harness.  But if you really want to
have fun some time, try leaving a Braille magazine that you have
finished reading on an airplane, in a hotel lobby, or in any other
public place where someone can track you down.

I've had discarded magazines follow me from the plane to the baggage
claim area, and I've had them appear on my breakfast table in the hotel
restaurant days after being abandoned in the hotel lobby.  I've even had
them presented to me on a revisit to a doctor's office, months after
I've left them behind after reading them.

It always amazes me that this happens, because all of these places are
characterized by stacks of print magazines, read, shared, and discarded
by the customers, passengers, patients who spend time mostly waiting in
those areas.  Obviously, sighted people see a Braille document of any
kind as an object of such rarity and value that they can't imagine it
ever being deliberately abandoned.  And just as obviously, they find it
easy to believe that the blind person is so scatter-brained or careless
that he/she requires others to gather and return his/her prized
possessions to him/her.

By the way, they also expect gratitude when the marvelous Braille
magazine is placed back in your hands.  They are completely nonplused
when I say to them, "Oh, I had discarded that magazine, because I was
finished reading it. 
You're welcome to take it if you wish."

I don't know if anyone else has ever had such experiences.  But it has
become something of a game I play with airline and hotel staff--see if
you can lose the Braille magazine--Reminds me of the song, "The Cat Came
Back."

Best,
Ann

----- Original Message -----
From: "Haben Girma" <habnkid at aol.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 3:19 AM
Subject: [nagdu] Here's your dog!


>
> Sometimes when I'm at the counter at a store or cafe, I"ll
deliberately 
> drop my cane by my feet so I can fish into my backpack to get my
wallet. 
> And sometimes, like today, when I've finished my purchase and am
putting 
> everything away in my backpack, a staff member will come around to
pick up 
> my cane and hand it to me. Now, I knew exactly where my cane was. In
fact, 
> I could feel it by my foot! I was going to pick it up right after I
put my 
> wallet in my backpack. The staff member was either very eager to help,
or 
> worried that I wouldn't be able to find my cane.
>
> Now I"m wondering, do any of you have similar experiences with dogs?
Do 
> people in the public say, "here's his harness!" when you already know 
> exactly where your guide dog is located?
>
> Haben
>
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