[NFB-Seniors] {Spam?} Re: {Spam?} RE: {Spam?} Hobbies - Do you have one? Will you share it with the rest of us? READ THIS MESSAGE

[Barbara Shaidnagle]

I have three books on amazon.com, two of the links appear after this
email.  The third is called LOVE AND THE HOLY GHOST.  It got a little
personal for me.  The crux of the book is about a girl who dies and does
not pass over.  I was at the point where she was gonna pass over and Joe
died.  After three years I decided to end the book and did.

I was in the Writer's Division and had some stuff published, some poems.
some articles about my writing.

On Sat, Aug 22, 2020 at 2:34 PM Judy Jones via NFB-Seniors <
nfb-seniors at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Hello,
>
>
>
> I like to do a lot of things.  For one, I like being on the PC and helping
> people trouble-shoot.
>
>
>
> I also like to knit and read, and I enjoy using my sewing machine.  I used
> to make garments, but more lately have only needed to do mending and
> hemming with it.  Quilting is something blind people don’t have to give up,
> either.
>
>
>
> I used to love horseback riding, but haven’t been in a place where I can
> do that now, nothing available here that I know of.
>
>
>
> Since I retired in 2017, I am beginning to take up things I had discarded.
>
>
>
> One big hobby is antique music boxes, their mechanics and music.  I wrote
> my thesis on the antique music box, and have one we bought in Germany, and
> have a digital collection of over 700 tunes in an antique music box play
> list I would be glad to share with anyone.
>
>
>
> Judy
>
>
>
>
>
> *From: *Robert Leslie Newman via NFB-Seniors <nfb-seniors at nfbnet.org>
> *Sent: *Saturday, August 22, 2020 10:55 AM
> *To: *NFB Senior Division list <nfb-seniors at nfbnet.org>
> *Cc: *Robert Leslie Newman <robertleslienewman at gmail.com>
> *Subject: *[NFB-Seniors] {Spam?} Hobbies - Do you have one? Will you
> share it with the rest of us? READ THIS MESSAGE
>
>
>
> Hi You All
>
>
>
> RE: Do you have a hobby and want to tell us about it? Or, you gave a hobby
>
> up and wonder if anyone else has figured out how to do it?
>
>
>
>
>
> Here is one of the best uses of this listserv!
>
>
>
> We have 305 email addresses/people on this list. Sure, not all of the
>
> seniors that are presently members of the NFB are with us on this list, but
>
> for sure, it is people that are looking to communicate with other seniors.
> I
>
> think we all are eager for information, and are also willing to give it; to
>
> support each other.
>
>
>
>
>
> Note: The NFB Seniors Division's 2020 Virtual Senior Retreat is coming up
>
> October 18th-24th. I will lead the discussion class, entitled Exploring
>
> Hobbies. We want to offer meaningful and exciting information by means of:
>
> Speakers who are great examples; Written information about resources; Links
>
> to audio and/or video presentations.
>
>
>
>
>
> Consider the following:
>
>
>
>
>
> #1 Are you willing to share with us about your hobbies, and how you handle
>
> them? The information we gather will be used in our Retreat, be placed on
>
> our NFB Seniors Division's website, and in one way or another, with all of
>
> us on this list.
>
>
>
>
>
> #2 Here are examples of what we mean as a hobby: Collecting things;
>
> gardening; Crafts; Woodworking; fishing; Cooking/baking; Sowing, knitting,
>
> etc.; Reading/writing; Exercising; Birding; Restoring old cars. You tell
> us!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> #3 Here is what we need to have said, described: Title of the hobby; Your
>
> name; Contact information: Extent of your blindness; what alternative
>
> methods and special equipment do you use; did you do this before you lost
>
> vision, or is this a new hobby.
>
>
>
>
>
> Remember, we are trying to help one another, we blind seniors, but also to
>
> enlighten family, blindness services professionals, and the general public.
>
> So Keep yourself focused on making your description, shortish, easy to
>
> follow, and to the point. I can and will help with needed editing;
>
> straightening out with is written, or editing an audio file.
>
>
>
> #4 Here are methods on how you can share, tell us:
>
>
>
>
>
> #5 You Make a recording and get it to me. Or, we together get on the phone
>
> and I record your description. We'd have to make an appointment, to make
>
> sure we hook up at a mutually agreed upon convenient time. 402-660-1743
>
>
>
>
>
> *2. Write an email or document with a description and send it to me at-
>
> robertleslienewman at gmail.com
>
>
>
>
>
> **One of my hobbies is exercise, swimming in the summer in our back yard
>
> pool makes that easy; when the temp is right. Below is an article that
>
> appear  several years back in the Braille Monitor; I'm still doing this
> same
>
> daily routine.
>
>
>
>
>
> Braille Monitor                                                    June
> 2008
>
>
>
>
>
> Swimming in the Zone
>
> A Mile in My Backyard
>
>
>
> by Robert Leslie Newman
>
>
>
> From the Editor: Summer is here, and many blind people would be interested
>
> in getting exercise in the pool if they had access and know-how. Two
>
> articles in this issue should offer encouragement to those who love the
>
> water. The first is by Robert Leslie Newman, who is one of our most
>
> dedicated advocates for exercise. This is what he says:
>
>
>
> Swimming has always been one of my favorite physical activities. As a kid I
>
> saw it as fun and physically refreshing on a hot day and a time to be with
>
> my friends. Now that I am older, less than a year away from completing my
>
> sixth decade, though I still love swimming for those early reasons, I
>
> realize that swimming fulfills an additional set of personal needs. In this
>
> article I intend to explore how a blind person swims independently and how
>
> this exercise benefits me physically and mentally and boosts my
>
> self-confidence. Finally, I will describe how this exercise can get you
> into
>
> the zone.
>
>
>
> I am lucky to be at a stage of life and career in which my wife and I have
>
> been able to make one of our dreams come true: to have our own backyard
>
> swimming pool. It is an aboveground oval pool measuring twelve feet by
>
> twenty-four feet and is four feet deep. Its sides are steel, its thick
>
> plastic liner is aqua blue, and it has an electric pump and filtering
>
> system. We had a deck built that wraps around both ends and one long side
>
> and joins an existing deck--house to pool without getting your feet dirty.
>
>
>
> Swimming as a totally blind person demands the same basic travel skills as
>
> traveling on dry land: a combination of hearing, touch, and common sense.
> As
>
> I describe my personal technique, note that, just as not all blind
> travelers
>
> use basic travel skills in the same way, each blind swimmer finds his or
> her
>
> own style of making it work. When swimming on the surface, my preference is
>
> always to have my ears out of the water so I can use my hearing to keep
>
> oriented; this would also help to avoid collisions with other swimmers. In
>
> this ears-up style I am able, not only to keep track of where I am relative
>
> to the length and width of the pool, but more important, to detect where
> the
>
> side walls are, helping me avoid running into them and, when swimming laps,
>
> to know precisely where they are in order to stay within touching distance
>
> of them.
>
>
>
> This hearing the walls, detecting where they are, is more than just
>
> listening for the sound of splashing water as it encounters the pool's
> sides
>
> and hearing background sounds coming over the top of the wall. This ability
>
> is more a result of the very real phenomenon that many blind people speak
> of
>
> as "blind sonar" or echolocation (before it was better understood, it was
>
> called "facial vision"). When I am asked to explain this "detecting the
>
> walls," I usually explain that objects make their presence known both by
> the
>
> quality of their echo feedback, which can be either highly reflective or
>
> sound absorbing, and also by the pressure that their mass projects, which
> we
>
> usually feel on the face. Once you detect it, you can use the amount of
>
> pressure to judge your distance and angle from the object--in this case the
>
> pool wall. (Sailors speak of sailing on a moonless and starless night and
>
> feeling the loom of a nearby towering rock or an on-coming island.)
>
>
>
> Swimming as exercise is one of my new enthusiasms. I love physical
> exercise.
>
> At every stage of my life I have found time for it. I presently do some
> sort
>
> of exercise six days a week: lifting weights, running, and muscle crunches.
>
> Now I mix in swimming during the warm months. Not only does swimming tax
>
> your respiratory and circulatory systems, it also involves all your muscles
>
> and is a low-impact activity. I love the feeling I have after a good
> workout
>
> in the water, overall fatigue yet a sense of accomplishment for having
> given
>
> my body a good workout. Knowing I am better inside and out gives me a glow
>
> of virtue. Like most people I pride myself on knowing that I am taking good
>
> care of my body, my health, and my general appearance.
>
>
>
> If I don't watch it, I can get bored when I swim. So, as part of pool
>
> maintenance, I make a game of finding leaves and other debris that have
>
> fallen in the water. This is not just walking around feeling for stuff with
>
> my toes, I'm on a hunt. I make it a test of how quickly I can get to the
>
> bottom and conduct a search over a reasonably large area. I really get to
>
> work on my ability to hold a breath.
>
>
>
> I have also made up several great underwater games. I drop and lie prone on
>
> the floor of the pool. As I sink, I expel all the air in my lungs,
>
> eliminating buoyancy. The object is to sink and not have to fight to stay
> on
>
> the bottom. With some of my body touching the spongy plastic flooring and
>
> stretched out with arms extended, I propel myself by finger and toe
>
> movements only. The object is to see how far and fast I can go.
>
>
>
> Another favorite underwater game is to visualize myself as a bird in
> flight;
>
> the medium in which I am propelling myself, a body of water, is not very
>
> different from a bird flying through the air. The real thrill that comes
>
> with this second exercise is planning and executing course changes,
>
> sometimes radical ones; this is as close to soaring as we humans can get.
> If
>
> I am swimming in a straight line, I perform a tilting sharp right or left
>
> turn or do a figure eight. The resulting position of my body is much like a
>
> bird's motion during a banking turn. You can really surprise yourself by
>
> coming up from the bottom on a steep angle as fast as you can and pop out
> of
>
> the water. This is called broaching when a whale does it.
>
>
>
> My favorite swimming exercise is distance swimming, and I love to watch
>
> people's reaction when I say, "I swam a mile in my backyard." This is of
>
> course an aerobic activity intended to work on the respiratory,
> circulatory,
>
> and musculature systems. The equation calculating a mile of swimming goes
>
> like this--a mile, 5,280 feet, divided by the perimeter of my pool, 56.5
>
> feet, equals about ninety-three laps. Because I am swimming just inside the
>
> pool's wall, using good old blind sonar to keep within touching distance of
>
> the side at all times, I add five laps to bring the distance traveled of
>
> about fifty-four feet a lap up to 5,292 feet. On average I make one circuit
>
> every thirty-five seconds, so one mile takes about fifty-seven minutes to
>
> complete.
>
>
>
> I have been asked how I track when I have completed a full circuit of the
>
> pool. I first thought that I would just keep track of the two turns and the
>
> two straight-a ways and raise my count that way. But, when you get into
>
> long-distance swimming and hit the zone that I will speak of in the next
>
> paragraphs, your mind begins floating free. You focus on thoughts that do
>
> not lend themselves to counting turns and straight-a ways or the shifting
> of
>
> the sun or the sound of the neighbor's lawnmower. So I increase my lap
> count
>
> by one each time I come abreast of the sound of the skimmer box, a cut-out
>
> hole in the pool's wall at the waterline that serves as an overflow port
> and
>
> allows floating debris to be skimmed off the surface.
>
>
>
> Swimming a mile is not something I do every day; I don't always have the
>
> time to devote to it. Yet on average in the summer I do it two to three
>
> times a week. I am going to describe swimming a mile because of what
>
> happens, not only the physical glow and healthy fatigue, but, even more
>
> intriguing, achieving the zone, the mental state that comes as my body
>
> adjusts to the strong and continuous physical strain.
>
>
>
> Starting a long swim, I am excited to begin but nervous that I may not make
>
> it. I plunge in, either pushing off the ladder or diving off the deck, not
>
> touching bottom then or when I finish. Until I hoist myself out again onto
>
> the hard, dry planks of the deck, water will be my only medium. My swims
>
> have pretty much developed a pattern of both physical and mental stages:
> the
>
> warm-up, the struggle, the second wind and the zone, then the hard work,
> and
>
> the final push to the finish.
>
>
>
> I warm up during the first ten or so laps, stretching muscles and joints,
>
> working the breathing, finding the right stroke, slowly building up speed.
> A
>
> modified breast stroke works best for me. Visualize my head up, ears and
>
> nose out of the water, my back and shoulders rhythmically bobbing above and
>
> below the surface of the water, my body rocking as I first stretch out,
> legs
>
> kicking back while simultaneously my arms reach ahead. Then my body
>
> contracts as my arms stroke back and my legs come forward. This quick
>
> one-two action is repeated again and again. I call this swimming style my
>
> sea gallop.
>
>
>
> I first feel fatigue somewhere in the twenties. I just push through this
>
> feeling and refuse to give in. Sometimes, to boost my willpower, I give
>
> myself a fantasy goal, visualizing that I am swimming away from the
> mainland
>
> toward an island a mile offshore.
>
>
>
> Somewhere in the thirties I reach and pass through a physical barrier and
>
> settle into my most economical stroke. I have my second wind and find that
>
> pushing my speed up to about two-thirds of my best is a pace that I can
> hold
>
> for the next twenty to thirty laps. It is here that I am no longer giving
>
> full attention to what my body is doing. I experience a separation of
>
> physical and mental awareness. I have reached the zone. My body is working
>
> on something like autopilot, where I am fully aware of all that it is doing
>
> and I am in full control, but I suddenly find my thoughts expanding,
>
> sometimes cascading. When I focus on one thought, the images come fast and
>
> full, and I find that I can take them places that I ordinarily would not be
>
> capable of--working out problems in relationships, building story-lines for
>
> articles such as this one, examining the secrets of life, and more. During
>
> this period I have the hardest time keeping track of laps. When in doubt of
>
> the count, I always repeat the lap.
>
>
>
> The later fifties and early sixties can be a time to slow down and shift
> the
>
> strain from one set of muscles to another, giving parts of my body a rest.
>
> Then in the later sixties and lower seventies I can again push on strong,
> up
>
> to about two-thirds power, and I'm again in the zone. By the later
>
> mid-eighties and nineties I am again swimming at about one-third speed,
>
> working at it to stay steady and concentrating on having a good finish.
>
>
>
> At this writing my longest distance has been two miles. My goal for this
>
> summer is five miles. I have run five miles many times in the past, and
>
> swimming them will indeed be a challenge. (The zone in running is called
>
> "runner's high.") But challenge in life is what we all need, and as blind
>
> people in this day and age, when others often doubt our abilities, we need
>
> to be ready to tackle any and all challenges that come our way. Success
> with
>
> a physical challenge can be one way of building belief and confidence in
>
> ourselves and can help us to meet and overcome life's challenges.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> NFB-Seniors at nfbnet.org
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> NFB-Seniors:
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>


-- 


http://www.amazon.com/Wisp-Barbara-Shaidnagle/dp/1511630515/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8



http://www.amazon.com/Trashy-White-Girls-Barbara-Shaidnagle/dp/1512159948/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

DeColores
Barbara