[nagdu] Living in the country and NFB convention

[Tracy Carcione]

I would love to live in the country, but it does seem to require driving. If
there are blind people doing it without driving, I'd love to hear about it.
My sister and I still own my folks' old house in the country.  It's
wonderfully quiet, but there's absolutely no way to walk anywhere. 
I think maybe the next best thing could be a small town with stuff within
walking distance, but not as noisy as city living. But I may be stuck with
city living, just so I can get around. Until that driverless car is
perfected.
Tracy

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dan Weiner via
nagdu
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2015 5:00 AM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Cc: Dan Weiner
Subject: [nagdu] Living in the country and NFB convention

Debbie.
First of all I wanted to tell youI totally understood the points you were
making about summer jobs for blind folks in the other post, but I just
didn't want to send a post saying "I agree totally"--smile.
I, personally  can think of nothing worse for my mobility and independence
prospects than living in the country.
Yes, I love animals and nature, don't get me wrong, they facinate me, but as
far as being a self-reliant person I'll take the city or at least the
suburbs.
I know people who live in the country who have to drive seventeen miles to
the nearest grocery store. So, if you are blind, or in any other way or for
whatever reason dependent on someone driving you, what do you do if you
can't get a ride...if you are blind and live in the country, I don't
criticize you by any means, but you'd really better feel secure about your
network of friends and family.
Look, even in the city or in my case the sort of half city half suburb area
you have to worry about how to get places--lol.
And of course I'm making all these comments based on being unexperienced at
living in the country, I never did it, just visited, so maybe there are some
tricks that I don't know about. I mean, I loved visiting farms and the
country,(animals of all kinds facinate me),  but I don't think I'd choose to
live there for the reasons stated above.

Having been in situations in my life where I felt very dependent on rides
and so on I'm very sensitive to where I live and would be very careful about
moving somewhere I couldn't at least do somethin, even if it 's something
little, myself.

And now on a completely different subject, who's going ot my home arrea
Orlando for convention? I'm still trying to figure out how much walking I
can do after my silly ankle surgery but I'm pretty sure I'm going to make an
appearance and it might be fun to meet up, anyone intereted you can
certainly write here or write me privately at :

dcwein at dcwein.cnc.net


Yours most cordially,

Dan W. who shouldn't be up this early and Parker who says:  oh good you're
up, it's breakfast time"--lol

 

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Debby Phillips
via nagdu
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2015 11:09 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users;
nagdu at nfbnet.org
Cc: Debby Phillips
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Sidewalk-less walking?

I'm really glad that there are people who like living in the country.  For
me it was dreadful.  First of all, we were 14 miles from a small town of
about 5'000 people.  The only way to get to town was for my husband to drive
me.  We had about a half mile lane, which was nice to walk down, but it got
pretty boring.  The main road that goes past that house is the county
highway.  There are lots of big trucks that go up and down that road.  The
other problem with it is that there were shoulders on the left side of the
road, but then they would drop off and be on the right side of the road,
with an edge that just dropped off.  Plus there were curves and trucks and
cars would come around the curves quite fast.  So for me, it was total
isolation.  I love living in Spokane, it's a nice sized town, not huge like
Seattle but there's stuff to do, public transportation and paratransit.  And
sidewalks! Lol.

When we first moved there, we had a Lab pet.  Jake was awesome.  
I will never know how he knew to do some of the things he did.  I was afraid
of the cows, even though they were on the other side of the fence.  Jake
would walk next to Cleo who was guiding me, but he would always put himself
between me and the cows.  And one winter day, we had very steep steps.  I
was afraid to go down them because they were very icy.  I did not say a word
to Jake.  
I was thinking about how nice it would be if Jake would come up and be on my
other side.  But I did not audibly call to him.  He came up on my right
side, allowed me to hang on to his fur, and walked down the steep icy steps
with me.  When we got to the bottom, off he ran, tail wagging.  How in the
world he knew to do that, and to keep between me and the cows I'll never
know.  The how he knew to come up and let me hang on to his fur to walk down
those steps is beyond me.  I really wonder if dogs sometimes can have some
kind of ESP or "sixth sense" or something? I know not 
every dog has it, but Jake sure had something.    Debby and Nova

_______________________________________________
nagdu mailing list
nagdu at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nagdu:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/dcwein%40dcwein.cnc.net


_______________________________________________
nagdu mailing list
nagdu at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nagdu:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/carcione%40access.net