[nagdu] Transitioning to the Cane was Humor for blind people

[Cindy Ray]

I talk to my cane often. It is a weird thing. I must have talked to Fisher
much more than I realized. One day I went a little crooked across a street
that kind of is at a diagonal anyway, and I was talking to my cane about how
we had screwed up. It wasn't nearly as helpful as Blind Square.
I think one of the most difficult things about switching back to a cane from
the dog is the thing that was the most difficult about switching from a cane
to a dog in the first place. When using a cane, you locate things with the
cane. The dog guides you around those things, so most of the time you don't
get to experience those things. When I first had a dog, I had a lot of
trouble giving over my trust that he/she would guide me around those things.
Other people did, too, because it seems that dogs wait until the last minute
to do that guiding. I wanted to find the things--little curves in the walk
that if you miss them you'll go in the grass, something in the way like a
Christmas tree, etc.--but after 26 years of using a dog mostly, I am having
trouble going back. I walk places, and the minute I am not being guided
around the things I actually enjoy visiting with the cane, people start
yelling directions at me, or I feel as if they will soon. I am
self-conscious and a little anxious. This is not so much the case if I am
just walking up and down streets. My church has some strange turns in it,
and from time to time I get misplaced. I wouldn't actually want to call it
lost. Sunday I went down a wrong staircase, and I knew it was, but I decided
to make an adventure of it. When I came through, I went back up the stairs
and then found the ones I meant to take in the first place, but I was a
little self-conscious. I am a little disconcerted by this, whether it is my
attitude or what it is. 
Cindy Lou Ray