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--></style></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Hello,</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I like to do a lot of things. For one, I like being on the PC and helping people trouble-shoot.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Since I retired in 2017, I am beginning to take up things I had discarded.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Judy</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='border:none;padding:0in'><b>From: </b><a href="mailto:nfb-seniors@nfbnet.org">Robert Leslie Newman via NFB-Seniors</a><br><b>Sent: </b>Saturday, August 22, 2020 10:55 AM<br><b>To: </b><a href="mailto:nfb-seniors@nfbnet.org">NFB Senior Division list</a><br><b>Cc: </b><a href="mailto:robertleslienewman@gmail.com">Robert Leslie Newman</a><br><b>Subject: </b>[NFB-Seniors] {Spam?} Hobbies - Do you have one? Will you share it with the rest of us? READ THIS MESSAGE</p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Hi You All</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>RE: Do you have a hobby and want to tell us about it? Or, you gave a hobby</p><p class=MsoNormal>up and wonder if anyone else has figured out how to do it? </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Here is one of the best uses of this listserv! </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>We have 305 email addresses/people on this list. Sure, not all of the</p><p class=MsoNormal>seniors that are presently members of the NFB are with us on this list, but</p><p class=MsoNormal>for sure, it is people that are looking to communicate with other seniors. I</p><p class=MsoNormal>think we all are eager for information, and are also willing to give it; to</p><p class=MsoNormal>support each other. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Note: The NFB Seniors Division's 2020 Virtual Senior Retreat is coming up</p><p class=MsoNormal>October 18th-24th. I will lead the discussion class, entitled Exploring</p><p class=MsoNormal>Hobbies. We want to offer meaningful and exciting information by means of:</p><p class=MsoNormal>Speakers who are great examples; Written information about resources; Links</p><p class=MsoNormal>to audio and/or video presentations. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Consider the following:</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>#1 Are you willing to share with us about your hobbies, and how you handle</p><p class=MsoNormal>them? The information we gather will be used in our Retreat, be placed on</p><p class=MsoNormal>our NFB Seniors Division's website, and in one way or another, with all of</p><p class=MsoNormal>us on this list. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>#2 Here are examples of what we mean as a hobby: Collecting things;</p><p class=MsoNormal>gardening; Crafts; Woodworking; fishing; Cooking/baking; Sowing, knitting,</p><p class=MsoNormal>etc.; Reading/writing; Exercising; Birding; Restoring old cars. You tell us!</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>#3 Here is what we need to have said, described: Title of the hobby; Your</p><p class=MsoNormal>name; Contact information: Extent of your blindness; what alternative</p><p class=MsoNormal>methods and special equipment do you use; did you do this before you lost</p><p class=MsoNormal>vision, or is this a new hobby. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Remember, we are trying to help one another, we blind seniors, but also to</p><p class=MsoNormal>enlighten family, blindness services professionals, and the general public.</p><p class=MsoNormal>So Keep yourself focused on making your description, shortish, easy to</p><p class=MsoNormal>follow, and to the point. I can and will help with needed editing;</p><p class=MsoNormal>straightening out with is written, or editing an audio file.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>#4 Here are methods on how you can share, tell us:</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>#5 You Make a recording and get it to me. Or, we together get on the phone</p><p class=MsoNormal>and I record your description. We'd have to make an appointment, to make</p><p class=MsoNormal>sure we hook up at a mutually agreed upon convenient time. 402-660-1743</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>*2. Write an email or document with a description and send it to me at-</p><p class=MsoNormal>robertleslienewman@gmail.com </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>**One of my hobbies is exercise, swimming in the summer in our back yard</p><p class=MsoNormal>pool makes that easy; when the temp is right. Below is an article that</p><p class=MsoNormal>appear several years back in the Braille Monitor; I'm still doing this same</p><p class=MsoNormal>daily routine.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Braille Monitor June 2008</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Swimming in the Zone</p><p class=MsoNormal>A Mile in My Backyard</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>by Robert Leslie Newman</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>From the Editor: Summer is here, and many blind people would be interested</p><p class=MsoNormal>in getting exercise in the pool if they had access and know-how. Two</p><p class=MsoNormal>articles in this issue should offer encouragement to those who love the</p><p class=MsoNormal>water. The first is by Robert Leslie Newman, who is one of our most</p><p class=MsoNormal>dedicated advocates for exercise. This is what he says:</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Swimming has always been one of my favorite physical activities. As a kid I</p><p class=MsoNormal>saw it as fun and physically refreshing on a hot day and a time to be with</p><p class=MsoNormal>my friends. Now that I am older, less than a year away from completing my</p><p class=MsoNormal>sixth decade, though I still love swimming for those early reasons, I</p><p class=MsoNormal>realize that swimming fulfills an additional set of personal needs. In this</p><p class=MsoNormal>article I intend to explore how a blind person swims independently and how</p><p class=MsoNormal>this exercise benefits me physically and mentally and boosts my</p><p class=MsoNormal>self-confidence. Finally, I will describe how this exercise can get you into</p><p class=MsoNormal>the zone.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I am lucky to be at a stage of life and career in which my wife and I have</p><p class=MsoNormal>been able to make one of our dreams come true: to have our own backyard</p><p class=MsoNormal>swimming pool. It is an aboveground oval pool measuring twelve feet by</p><p class=MsoNormal>twenty-four feet and is four feet deep. Its sides are steel, its thick</p><p class=MsoNormal>plastic liner is aqua blue, and it has an electric pump and filtering</p><p class=MsoNormal>system. We had a deck built that wraps around both ends and one long side</p><p class=MsoNormal>and joins an existing deck--house to pool without getting your feet dirty.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Swimming as a totally blind person demands the same basic travel skills as</p><p class=MsoNormal>traveling on dry land: a combination of hearing, touch, and common sense. As</p><p class=MsoNormal>I describe my personal technique, note that, just as not all blind travelers</p><p class=MsoNormal>use basic travel skills in the same way, each blind swimmer finds his or her</p><p class=MsoNormal>own style of making it work. When swimming on the surface, my preference is</p><p class=MsoNormal>always to have my ears out of the water so I can use my hearing to keep</p><p class=MsoNormal>oriented; this would also help to avoid collisions with other swimmers. In</p><p class=MsoNormal>this ears-up style I am able, not only to keep track of where I am relative</p><p class=MsoNormal>to the length and width of the pool, but more important, to detect where the</p><p class=MsoNormal>side walls are, helping me avoid running into them and, when swimming laps,</p><p class=MsoNormal>to know precisely where they are in order to stay within touching distance</p><p class=MsoNormal>of them.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>This hearing the walls, detecting where they are, is more than just</p><p class=MsoNormal>listening for the sound of splashing water as it encounters the pool's sides</p><p class=MsoNormal>and hearing background sounds coming over the top of the wall. This ability</p><p class=MsoNormal>is more a result of the very real phenomenon that many blind people speak of</p><p class=MsoNormal>as "blind sonar" or echolocation (before it was better understood, it was</p><p class=MsoNormal>called "facial vision"). When I am asked to explain this "detecting the</p><p class=MsoNormal>walls," I usually explain that objects make their presence known both by the</p><p class=MsoNormal>quality of their echo feedback, which can be either highly reflective or</p><p class=MsoNormal>sound absorbing, and also by the pressure that their mass projects, which we</p><p class=MsoNormal>usually feel on the face. Once you detect it, you can use the amount of</p><p class=MsoNormal>pressure to judge your distance and angle from the object--in this case the</p><p class=MsoNormal>pool wall. (Sailors speak of sailing on a moonless and starless night and</p><p class=MsoNormal>feeling the loom of a nearby towering rock or an on-coming island.) </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Swimming as exercise is one of my new enthusiasms. I love physical exercise.</p><p class=MsoNormal>At every stage of my life I have found time for it. I presently do some sort</p><p class=MsoNormal>of exercise six days a week: lifting weights, running, and muscle crunches.</p><p class=MsoNormal>Now I mix in swimming during the warm months. Not only does swimming tax</p><p class=MsoNormal>your respiratory and circulatory systems, it also involves all your muscles</p><p class=MsoNormal>and is a low-impact activity. I love the feeling I have after a good workout</p><p class=MsoNormal>in the water, overall fatigue yet a sense of accomplishment for having given</p><p class=MsoNormal>my body a good workout. Knowing I am better inside and out gives me a glow</p><p class=MsoNormal>of virtue. Like most people I pride myself on knowing that I am taking good</p><p class=MsoNormal>care of my body, my health, and my general appearance.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>If I don't watch it, I can get bored when I swim. So, as part of pool</p><p class=MsoNormal>maintenance, I make a game of finding leaves and other debris that have</p><p class=MsoNormal>fallen in the water. This is not just walking around feeling for stuff with</p><p class=MsoNormal>my toes, I'm on a hunt. I make it a test of how quickly I can get to the</p><p class=MsoNormal>bottom and conduct a search over a reasonably large area. I really get to</p><p class=MsoNormal>work on my ability to hold a breath. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I have also made up several great underwater games. I drop and lie prone on</p><p class=MsoNormal>the floor of the pool. As I sink, I expel all the air in my lungs,</p><p class=MsoNormal>eliminating buoyancy. The object is to sink and not have to fight to stay on</p><p class=MsoNormal>the bottom. With some of my body touching the spongy plastic flooring and</p><p class=MsoNormal>stretched out with arms extended, I propel myself by finger and toe</p><p class=MsoNormal>movements only. The object is to see how far and fast I can go. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Another favorite underwater game is to visualize myself as a bird in flight;</p><p class=MsoNormal>the medium in which I am propelling myself, a body of water, is not very</p><p class=MsoNormal>different from a bird flying through the air. The real thrill that comes</p><p class=MsoNormal>with this second exercise is planning and executing course changes,</p><p class=MsoNormal>sometimes radical ones; this is as close to soaring as we humans can get. If</p><p class=MsoNormal>I am swimming in a straight line, I perform a tilting sharp right or left</p><p class=MsoNormal>turn or do a figure eight. The resulting position of my body is much like a</p><p class=MsoNormal>bird's motion during a banking turn. You can really surprise yourself by</p><p class=MsoNormal>coming up from the bottom on a steep angle as fast as you can and pop out of</p><p class=MsoNormal>the water. This is called broaching when a whale does it. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>My favorite swimming exercise is distance swimming, and I love to watch</p><p class=MsoNormal>people's reaction when I say, "I swam a mile in my backyard." This is of</p><p class=MsoNormal>course an aerobic activity intended to work on the respiratory, circulatory,</p><p class=MsoNormal>and musculature systems. The equation calculating a mile of swimming goes</p><p class=MsoNormal>like this--a mile, 5,280 feet, divided by the perimeter of my pool, 56.5</p><p class=MsoNormal>feet, equals about ninety-three laps. Because I am swimming just inside the</p><p class=MsoNormal>pool's wall, using good old blind sonar to keep within touching distance of</p><p class=MsoNormal>the side at all times, I add five laps to bring the distance traveled of</p><p class=MsoNormal>about fifty-four feet a lap up to 5,292 feet. On average I make one circuit</p><p class=MsoNormal>every thirty-five seconds, so one mile takes about fifty-seven minutes to</p><p class=MsoNormal>complete.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I have been asked how I track when I have completed a full circuit of the</p><p class=MsoNormal>pool. I first thought that I would just keep track of the two turns and the</p><p class=MsoNormal>two straight-a ways and raise my count that way. But, when you get into</p><p class=MsoNormal>long-distance swimming and hit the zone that I will speak of in the next</p><p class=MsoNormal>paragraphs, your mind begins floating free. You focus on thoughts that do</p><p class=MsoNormal>not lend themselves to counting turns and straight-a ways or the shifting of</p><p class=MsoNormal>the sun or the sound of the neighbor's lawnmower. So I increase my lap count</p><p class=MsoNormal>by one each time I come abreast of the sound of the skimmer box, a cut-out</p><p class=MsoNormal>hole in the pool's wall at the waterline that serves as an overflow port and</p><p class=MsoNormal>allows floating debris to be skimmed off the surface.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Swimming a mile is not something I do every day; I don't always have the</p><p class=MsoNormal>time to devote to it. Yet on average in the summer I do it two to three</p><p class=MsoNormal>times a week. I am going to describe swimming a mile because of what</p><p class=MsoNormal>happens, not only the physical glow and healthy fatigue, but, even more</p><p class=MsoNormal>intriguing, achieving the zone, the mental state that comes as my body</p><p class=MsoNormal>adjusts to the strong and continuous physical strain.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Starting a long swim, I am excited to begin but nervous that I may not make</p><p class=MsoNormal>it. I plunge in, either pushing off the ladder or diving off the deck, not</p><p class=MsoNormal>touching bottom then or when I finish. Until I hoist myself out again onto</p><p class=MsoNormal>the hard, dry planks of the deck, water will be my only medium. My swims</p><p class=MsoNormal>have pretty much developed a pattern of both physical and mental stages: the</p><p class=MsoNormal>warm-up, the struggle, the second wind and the zone, then the hard work, and</p><p class=MsoNormal>the final push to the finish. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I warm up during the first ten or so laps, stretching muscles and joints,</p><p class=MsoNormal>working the breathing, finding the right stroke, slowly building up speed. A</p><p class=MsoNormal>modified breast stroke works best for me. Visualize my head up, ears and</p><p class=MsoNormal>nose out of the water, my back and shoulders rhythmically bobbing above and</p><p class=MsoNormal>below the surface of the water, my body rocking as I first stretch out, legs</p><p class=MsoNormal>kicking back while simultaneously my arms reach ahead. Then my body</p><p class=MsoNormal>contracts as my arms stroke back and my legs come forward. This quick</p><p class=MsoNormal>one-two action is repeated again and again. I call this swimming style my</p><p class=MsoNormal>sea gallop.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I first feel fatigue somewhere in the twenties. I just push through this</p><p class=MsoNormal>feeling and refuse to give in. Sometimes, to boost my willpower, I give</p><p class=MsoNormal>myself a fantasy goal, visualizing that I am swimming away from the mainland</p><p class=MsoNormal>toward an island a mile offshore. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Somewhere in the thirties I reach and pass through a physical barrier and</p><p class=MsoNormal>settle into my most economical stroke. I have my second wind and find that</p><p class=MsoNormal>pushing my speed up to about two-thirds of my best is a pace that I can hold</p><p class=MsoNormal>for the next twenty to thirty laps. It is here that I am no longer giving</p><p class=MsoNormal>full attention to what my body is doing. I experience a separation of</p><p class=MsoNormal>physical and mental awareness. I have reached the zone. My body is working</p><p class=MsoNormal>on something like autopilot, where I am fully aware of all that it is doing</p><p class=MsoNormal>and I am in full control, but I suddenly find my thoughts expanding,</p><p class=MsoNormal>sometimes cascading. When I focus on one thought, the images come fast and</p><p class=MsoNormal>full, and I find that I can take them places that I ordinarily would not be</p><p class=MsoNormal>capable of--working out problems in relationships, building story-lines for</p><p class=MsoNormal>articles such as this one, examining the secrets of life, and more. During</p><p class=MsoNormal>this period I have the hardest time keeping track of laps. When in doubt of</p><p class=MsoNormal>the count, I always repeat the lap. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The later fifties and early sixties can be a time to slow down and shift the</p><p class=MsoNormal>strain from one set of muscles to another, giving parts of my body a rest.</p><p class=MsoNormal>Then in the later sixties and lower seventies I can again push on strong, up</p><p class=MsoNormal>to about two-thirds power, and I'm again in the zone. By the later</p><p class=MsoNormal>mid-eighties and nineties I am again swimming at about one-third speed,</p><p class=MsoNormal>working at it to stay steady and concentrating on having a good finish.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>At this writing my longest distance has been two miles. My goal for this</p><p class=MsoNormal>summer is five miles. I have run five miles many times in the past, and</p><p class=MsoNormal>swimming them will indeed be a challenge. (The zone in running is called</p><p class=MsoNormal>"runner's high.") But challenge in life is what we all need, and as blind</p><p class=MsoNormal>people in this day and age, when others often doubt our abilities, we need</p><p class=MsoNormal>to be ready to tackle any and all challenges that come our way. Success with</p><p class=MsoNormal>a physical challenge can be one way of building belief and confidence in</p><p class=MsoNormal>ourselves and can help us to meet and overcome life's challenges.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>