On the Road with Barry Smyrna, TN

Day 1

Santa brought me a gift that’s been on my wish list for a while now: some noise-cancelling headphones. With all the flying I do, they’re WAY more comfortable than any in-ear earbuds, and a bajillion times better than the ones that the airlines pass out. I know. I know. Beggars can’t be choosers, and I’ve utilized the airline earbuds several times and have been grateful for them. But now, I have what I consider to be the Cadillac of headphones. Now, the term “noise cancelling” is a little deceiving. When they’re in use, you can still hear stuff going on around you, but it’s severely muffled. My first plane to Atlanta didn’t have seat-back-screens, so I listened to my book, and it was lovely. The second leg was from Atlanta to Nashville, and they did have the screens. I started watching a movie, quickly fell asleep, and did not finish it. But I listened to it in noise-cancelled bliss. Another benefit of these wonders is that they fit my melon head without straining the material, and my ears didn’t sweat. Big plus for me!
The Nashville airport bathrooms have the most recent technology I’ve seen in the hand-sanitation department. The sink resembles a long trough with automated soap, water and hand dryer — all attached to the top of the trough. There’s still no shortage of mindless handwaving by the users, attempting to find the right movement that will drop soap into our hands, wash them, and dry them off. And, if you’re blessed enough, there’ll be some leftover water at the bottom of the trough that hasn’t drained yet, and the hand dryer (that you’d decided didn’t work) will force that water back up into your lap. It sure looks fancy, though.

The last time I was in Nashville (not too long ago), Sarah and I got caught in the after-Thanksgiving travel mess, coupled with a few delayed flights. This time was nothing like that, thank the good Lord, and I got straight to my vehicle. It always takes me a few minutes to get out of the rental area because every car I rent has different operating systems, very much like the airport restrooms. The gear shift can be a roll dial, a twisty knob, a push button, or an actual gear shift. The last ones throw me off the most because I’m thinking that it’s got to be something more “advanced”. Connecting the phone is another big deal. I need the GPS when traveling in unknown lands, and it’s just safer to have the phone connected so you can be distracted with both hands on the wheel.

I made it to Smyrna, Tennessee, a short drive from Nashville proper, and went shopping at my favorite grocery store, Publix. I know I talk about them often, but they have a great sandwich shop in the deli, so, along with my groceries, I get a Pub sub and head to the hotel.

Image description: Wanda walks along a sidewalk in downtown

Day 2

I’m in Smyrna to work with Wanda, who reports to have just a little remaining vision in one eye. She’s been dealing with this for quite some time but has learned to live with it. One thing — the main thing actually — is to be less dependent on her friends and family when she goes out. She told me that she was tired of “hanging on” to other people. We started off in her home, and I showed her how to be safely guided by others in unfamiliar areas. Well-meaning people often end up grabbing their friends’ arms or hands and steering them around. It seems like the right thing to do, but to the person being steered, it can be very un-nerving. So, if this is happening to you, tell folks. They won’t be offended. If they were willing to help before, they’ll be willing with this “new” method too. And if they are offended, that’s their business. Not yours. When you live life with a visual impairment, you’ve got to look out for #1. This goes against how most of you were brought up, but it’s a self-preservation issue. Nobody knows what best works for you, so you’ve got to tell them. As we’re doing it, Wanda is telling me about different situations in which these techniques will be useful.

We move on from this to the use of the white cane. Wanda ordered herself a white cane on Amazon, but has had no one to teach her how to use it. When I explained the technique to her, she said, “that’s it?” I tell people all the time that what I teach is not rocket science. Honestly, you hold the cane in front of you and swing it. The three rules of cane use are:

1. If you’re moving, the cane should be moving.
2. Hold your head up.
3. Don’t get in a hurry.

Pretty simple. Orientation and mobility (O&M) is about 90% orientation. Once you’ve learned how to keep the cane moving wide enough and in rhythm with your feet, the biggest thing you’ll deal with is keeping track of where you are on the planet. Orientation changes with every step you take, every move you make. That’s the hardest part, keeping up with your location. If you have remaining vision, holding your head up will help you locate visual landmarks to help you maintain your orientation. On a side note, even if you don’t have vision, holding your head up has great benefits. You’re able to keep your balance better, you’ll be able to walk a straighter line, and your posture will improve. Wanda and I went for a walk in her neighborhood and then shopping at Target, and I didn’t have to tell her to hold her head up one time! She was ready to use the vision she had left for her benefit, and she did it. It was fun to watch.

Day 3

Smyrna is a hopping little town. Probably not as little as I think, but it is a bustling suburb of Nashville, maybe 20 minutes south of the airport. I would imagine that a lot of folks who work in Nashville live outside the city, like most larger areas. That means lots of shopping opportunities, and traffic, and pedestrians. For a mobility specialist, this is a target-rich environment! We first went to Walmart, the ultimate test of skills: navigating the parking lot (which is an evil, evil place), negotiating in and around all the aisles and displays, and moving about with all the other human beings. I personally am not a fan of shopping here, but in a lot of places, it is a necessary evil. You CAN get just about anything you need in one stop, but what you can’t get is just one (or even ten) nails. You have to buy a multi-pack of nails of varying sizes, most of which you will never use, that comes in a plastic container that is otherwise useless, except for storing all those nails you’re never gonna use.

I do a lot of shopping with clients because it’s something that takes on a new level of difficulty for people with visual impairments. There are legion differences in how much vision one person has from another person, and in how they use it. You could line up ten people with the same exact diagnosis with the exact same measured amount of remaining vision, and they’re all gonna use it differently. And, sometimes, the remaining vision fluctuates on different days, in different lighting, etc. All that to say that every trip to the store is different for each client. The easiest way to shop at Walmart is to order it online, right, Mom? But if you have to go, the second easiest way is to break up the store into smaller chunks, learn those chunks, and eventually weave them all together. Wanda has obviously shopped at Walmart before and knows, basically, where things are. In shopping, especially in these bigger stores, getting close is really helpful. If you get close, you can probably ask for assistance from other shoppers. I wouldn’t advocate waiting for a store employee. Everyone has cut back their workforce, doing more with less and all that. Your clothes will go out of style while waiting for a store employee. And don’t get me started on the self-checkout. Shouldn’t we be getting employee discounts if we’re gonna be checking ourselves out? And this is not just Walmart, as you know. It’s everywhere you go these days.

We went from Walmart to Wanda’s church. She’s here on Wednesdays and Sundays, and another day I can’t remember, for Bible study. This is just another example of Wanda wanting to be more independent. With all the doors being locked, we spent most of our time here negotiating the evil, evil parking lot, and the route to the pavilion out back where they have special events. Wanda has stopped going to these because she was concerned about the uneven surface that is the parking lot, and navigating around the collection of picnic tables was really difficult when you can’t see them all clearly or tell how far away any of them are. Her using the cane will make this all a whole lot easier.

Image description: Wanda walks along a sidewalk using her white cane.

Day 4

It’s been threatening to rain all week, and today it finally happened. Wanda and I went to the mall down in Murfreesboro to get our practice in and stay dry at the same time. The mall is a great place to do just that, and it offers more practice in negotiating the evil, evil parking lot, other pedestrians, and multiple objects in the pathway. Lots of walkers in the mall this morning, which, with the weather, should have been expected. Like most indoor malls these days, not all the shops are operating. Lots of empty spaces, but the big stores are still there. This one has a gym in it, which I think is a great use of the space. They didn’t have to cut down more trees to build a sprawling building with another evil, evil parking lot because the space was already available.

We went to lunch at Joanie’s, on the square in Murfreesboro. My colleague, Sarah, and I ate here a couple of times while together working with two other clients. If you’re a blog regular, you’ve already read Sarah’s blog about our time in Murfreesboro. Didn’t she do well? I’m proud of her for doing it, and maybe she’ll do more. She travels the country like I do, and I’m sure she finds adventures in the everyday, just like me. She’s the one who found Joanie’s, by the way. Lunch was as good as I remembered. I had a burger and sweet potato fries, and Wanda had a chicken quesadilla that was bigger than she was! Joanie’s doesn’t cheat you on the portions, that’s for sure. When there last, I ordered a burger not realizing that it was a double of everything. I got it because it had bacon, eggs, and avocado on it as well, but it had double portions of all that. I made a conscious choice to NOT finish it, and gave the other half to Sarah, who had it for dinner that night. Wanda took home her quesadilla, too. We sat on a platform that was elevated above the main floor, in what was the display window of this one-time department store. A nice young lady offered us her seats on the main floor, but mean ole’ Barry refused and had Wanda practice stairs one more time. O&M is everything, and everything is O&M. We also got some practice crossing streets and negotiating around more pedestrians and obstacles. It was another good day.

Day 5

I’m always amazed at how much I spread out in the hotel room. I mean, I DO live here for a week, but putting everything back in my bag seems like a more monumental task than it did on my way here. Today’s our last day training, and, although I’m not flying out until tomorrow morning, I don’t like to do it all last minute. I’ve started collecting things into more manageable piles. I’m doing this before heading down to breakfast. When I stepped into the elevator lobby on my floor, there were several junior high-aged youths carrying band instrument cases. They didn’t get on the elevator with me, claiming to be waiting on another member of their party. Stepping out on the first floor, I found all the rest of their party. It appeared as if someone had stepped on an anthill of junior high-aged youths with band instrument cases. Or, judging by what’s left on the breakfast buffet, more like a swarm of locusts. Like biblical-proportion locusts. Having some yogurt in my room, I decided to not see if the whole world turned dark in the middle of the day (In Exodus, the plague of darkness followed the locusts. Read your Bible, y’all!), and retired to an environment with fewer junior high-aged youths with band instrument cases. Yogurt will do me just fine.

Wanda and I are headed to downtown Smyrna this morning, to a shop (or Shoppe, as you’ll soon see) we found when down here on Thursday. The British Shoppe was closed on Thursday, and Wanda had been wanting to go see what it’s all about. Some of her friends told her about it. Among other things, Smyrna is known for Depot Days—an annual celebration of the railroad: what it brought, what it left, and what it took away. There’s a restored depot building downtown, with a nice pavilion and benches scattered around the lawn. There’s several shops and restaurants as well, and a nice, new traffic circle. Traffic circles are the (not so) new craze with traffic engineers. The traffic circle, by design, is put into place to move more traffic through an intersection than a standard light-controlled intersection. More going and less stopping is the idea. Most drivers believe that they are designed specifically for chaos and confusion. This one, as far as traffic circles go, is marked fairly well for pedestrians. Again, in theory, crossing the street at a traffic circle is safer because you only have to deal with one direction of traffic at a time. You cross to the center island, then cross the remaining lane(s).