On the Road With Barry – Michigan

Day 1

I’m headed back to the mothership for the second time in three months. It’s been a while since I’ve been here this often. I like going, but there’s this waiting list…

I’m flying on THE airline, and I’m already relaxed just thinking about NOT flying on the other airline. Somehow, I got an upgrade to a seat that fits normal-sized human beings, and that was nice. I did get stuck next to someone who brought their pizza on the plane. Who does that? It’s a two-and-a-half hour flight. Do you need to eat anything other than Biscoff cookies or Sun Chips and ginger ale on a flight of that length?

I got into Detroit early, and I set up camp near Gretchen’s gate. Gretchen is one of our clients this week, and she and I are coming into the airport in close enough times to get picked up by the same volunteer, Doug. Doug has picked me up too many times to count. Doug and other volunteers do a lot of our airport runs these days, and it is such a blessing. On campus instructors used to do all of the airport trips, at the beginning of AND end of training. I can’t tell you what a week of orientation and mobility (O&M) every day or three weeks of guide dog training does to you, but I will tell you that it really wears you out both physically and mentally. Having to drive the extra two to two-and-a-half hours to the airport and wait until the client’s plane was in the air was just a lot of extra responsibility. Volunteers do so much for us at Leader, airport runs being one small example. We are so lucky to have them.

We pick up Gretchen and head to campus, where the kitchen team has left Gretchen and me a lovely prepared meal of lasagna and salad, which is really nice because all I’ve had to eat all day was some lousy Biscoff cookies, petite Sun Chips, and ginger ale. Who can survive on that?

Day 2

I’m here at the mothership while working in one of our pilot programs in which the clients can come in for some O&M and activities of daily living (ADL). We’ve contracted with some “local” certified vision rehabilitation therapists (CVRTs), and we’re basically going to split the day up into parts. I’ve got O&M in the morning and Chad, the CVRT with whom I’m sharing a client, will be on tap in the afternoons. Sibyl, our client, has been to Leader before, and she knows Chad, so she’s had a really soft landing here. She and I are going to work on getting across the bigger light controlled intersections that are similar to her home environment. If she can get across a couple of these nearer her home, it will open up a lot of new travel possibilities for her.

Crossing at a light controlled intersection is all about auditory discrimination and pattern recognition. Can you determine from which direction a car comes from? And towards which direction it is traveling? Can you listen to the traffic cycles with a discriminating ear and pick up the pattern? If you can determine the pattern, you can cross a street without seeing the traffic. Obviously, you’ve got to have good O&M skills, but determining when it’s safest to cross is a highly defined skill that needs a lot of practice and repetition. Sibyl is motivated to learn how to do this as effectively as possible, so that makes my job easier. We waded into the shallow end of the pool today, and we’ll get into deeper water all week long. I’ll never say this is easy, because it’s far from it. I will say that the bigger and wider the intersection is, the more intimidating it can be. I will also say that they all have a pattern and can be crossed if that pattern can be located and interpreted correctly.

I spent the afternoon learning more about the Meta glasses from Chad and our other CVRTs on campus. What I don’t know would fill a large potato sack at least. I need to be taking more notes.

Day 3

Sibyl, Chad, and I head out this morning to find more complex intersections. I love the fact that Chad went with us. It helps him to get the big picture of what Sibyl is going through, and it can help him link experiences into his instruction in the afternoons. He did make one tactical error, though. Chad is a cane user and an excellent traveler, but he forgot his gloves. Cane users have one hand exposed already, then he used guide technique with me so we could all walk at the same speed, so his other hand was exposed as well. Guide technique is simply holding the elbow of a guide when walking together. Sibyl and I both donated gloves to his cause, and his hands eventually stopped shaking. In case you were wondering, it’s still cold in Michigan.

I even called Sarah, another field rep with whom I’ve taught before, most recently in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where we were both decidedly underdressed for the damp cold. She recommended that I bring the mother of all coats, a Leader provided parka that comes down to my ankles (if I unzip and unsnap the correct combination of buttons and zippers), has enough pockets to pack for an Arctic exploration, and a fur lined hood that is reminiscent of Han Solo’s coat in The Empire Strikes Back. You know, when he was looking for Luke on the frozen planet Hoth? I don’t know a boy/man my age, or anywhere close to it, that wouldn’t look at that coat and not compare himself to Han Solo. He was the measuring stick by which a lot of impressionable young men measured themselves in the 80s. Apparently, I’m still doing it. Anyway, it’s a great coat.

We get through three really wide, complex intersections this morning, and Sibyl is really catching on quickly. On the last one of the morning, I was able to back up, shut up, and just let Sibyl cook. She’s so pleased with her own ability to figure this out, and she should be.

At Leader, we have meals in a common dining area, and we sit in assigned seats all week. My table was full of clients here for either the pilot program or our “normal” O&M week. We have one client here this week who is DeafBlind and requires an interpreter, so there’s always one of those at the table as well. Sarah and Chelsea, O&M/GDMIs on our DeafBlind team, are only two of these interpreters, as we have contracted with additional help. All that to say that our client has been so patient with the rest of us who don’t understand sign and have been teaching us all a lot.
Now, Chelsea will be mad if I don’t admit that I DO know sign language but don’t use it, so here you go: I know sign language. I learned it a LONG time ago and haven’t used it enough to be fluent. I’m cautious to sign in front of our client because, just like my Spanish, I know just enough to get myself in trouble. (FYI: I’m not using that client’s name because I didn’t get their permission to do so. After getting to know them, I’m certain this wouldn’t have been a problem, but I didn’t ask…) Our client is so patient with all of us and teaches us every chance they get.

Day 4

Sibyl and I are headed to her home neighborhood this morning to slay a dragon. Hic Sunt Dracones. There’s an intersection close to her about which it has been suggested that she not cross. Like I would tell anyone, I told her, “Let’s go see.” I’ve never been there. Maybe “they” are right. Who knows?

What I do know is that a lot of times, well meaning people who really care about their friend or loved ones say those kinds of things because they are concerned for their safety. Not to say that I’m not, but I and other mobility specialists across the globe, assess risk a little differently.
I know you’re all wondering, so I’ll tell ya: we slayed another dragon. I can totally see what “they” were talking about. It wasn’t easy, nor was it easily obvious, but the intersection in question was clearly marked and had pedestrian signals installed. They were all working as well, which is not always the case. They weren’t audible either, but that doesn’t bother Sibyl, who has learned to trust her ability to recognize patterns and determine a safe opportunity to cross the street.

All the pattern recognition in the world, however, doesn’t make you brave enough to step out into the street. Half of street crossings is positioning, half is knowing when to go, and the other half is actually stepping out into traffic. This one is a real bear, too: it’s divided, so there are two crossings to get across, which means you have to get psyched up to cross the street twice as many times as you normally do. It’s also not square, so you really have to pay attention to the traffic noise in order to get lined up properly. Like I said, it’s a bear. Or, to maintain continuity of theme, it’s a dragon.
Sibyl slayed the dragon four times in about 20 minutes. She laughed. She cried. She danced. Which means I laughed and cried. But it DOES NOT mean that I danced. I don’t dance. Then she went and did it again and again. Hic Sunt Dracones. Not here. Not anymore.

Aunt Shirley says that the Welsh use it a little bit differently: ibi sunt dracones. Meaning “There be dragons out there, somewhere. So watch out.” Or something like that. Mostly as a travel blessing. Which also works. I like ’em both.

Day 5

Another of Sibyl’s goals is to be more independent in the kitchen, so she, Chad, and I head to Meijer this morning to work on shopping skills. First, we have to negotiate the evil, evil parking lot, which Sibyl does with very little effort. She’s prepared for this trip, which includes making her list and calling ahead to ask for shopping assistance. Meijer provided a personal shopper for Sibyl, which is great.

Not everyone does it this way, but if you call ahead and tell folks that you’re blind, they’ll find a way to help you out. Yes. I used the word “blind.” You all know, because you’re an intelligent audience, that a very small percentage of people with visual impairments are actually totally blind. What you don’t want to do is try to explain your particular visual impairment and just how you use your vision to someone over the phone. It’s WAY easier to just say “blind,” then you can explain your vision to whomever shows up to assist. Just a tip.

Sibyl meets her person while Chad and I just lurk in the background. We actually lost her a couple of times. Not because we were having a very in depth conversation about composting, which we were, but because Sibyl and her new friend just took off, moving very confidently through the store. Chad finally suggested that we just stand near the registers so they’d have to come by us before paying, which worked wonderfully.
Sibyl went back and cooked her own meal of chicken and broccoli in the air fryer, and it was fantastic. The chicken was still moist and had a nice crisp on the outside, while the broccoli was still crunchy. Those air fryers are some sort of magic box, man. I tell ya.

I got to go out to dinner tonight with an old friend, Melissa, who happens to be our President and CEO. We met downtown and talked a little shop, for sure, but mostly about books and music and travel. Melissa’s father and I have similar reading tastes, so I suggest more military history to her. She recently got him a copy of The Gales of November, a book about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Melissa told me about it, I read it, and she then got it for her dad.

“Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains proves that he has no brains of his own.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Day 6

Sibyl and I go back downtown this morning with a wagon. She wants to pull a wagon behind her on her trips to the grocery store, and I want her to be able to use her cane properly and safely while she’s pulling it. Like every other task this week, Sibyl eats it up with a spoon.

We’re downtown with all the other clients who are finishing up their instruction as well. Those who are here for O&M can get a “test drive” with a guide dog in training if they choose to, and everyone but one is doing so. It’s fun to watch. Sibyl got to do it when she was here for her O&M class last December. It’s still cold, and I get to wear the Han Solo parka again. No complaints here!

Lunch today is a special celebration lunch prepared by our wonderful kitchen team. We eat like royalty all week long, three meals a day. Then they prepare an extra special lunch for this celebration. Some time ago, I asked the kitchen team to serve me protein dense, low carb meals, and they have never forgotten it. But today, I got the same amount of mashed potatoes as everyone else and some of the most tender beef I’ve ever had. I don’t know what cut of beef it was, and I don’t care.

I’m sitting at the table with our client who is DeafBlind, and I asked her (yes, in sign language) if it was rude to lick the plate. They didn’t think so, but it probably is. I used all of my self control not to do so.

Some of the clients have family or friends at lunch with them, or they can meet with us virtually online. It’s a special way to wrap up a long and rewarding week of training, and one heck of a meal.