Recently my husband, Jim, my Seeing Eye dog, Quan, and I climbed a mountain. The experience of this particular climb taught me lessons about teamwork I never learned in guide dog school. The beginning of the hike was fairly routine. Quan guided flawlessly and I followed his lead, turning when he turned, stepping […]
Veterans Affairs uses a social media platform called Pulse. The other day I received a notification from Pulse about a book entitled Intelligent Disobedience. The concept of intelligent disobedience is not new to me as all of my Seeing Eye dogs have been trained to intelligently disobey me in certain circumstances. Interested, I downloaded and […]
In Autumn, 2012, we took a whirlwind trip from Alabama to Maine and, among other things, climbed Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. What follows is simply a “sound diary” of that climb. This first clip was during the very beginning of the hike when we were in the woods near the foot of the […]
Timing Is Everything After fourteen years in Alabama we’re having to reacclimate ourselves to growing a garden in Maine. By now, in Alabama, our garden would be in and we’d probably be harvesting early crops such as lettuce and spinach. Here in Maine we only have seeds started in the house – all in trays […]
How I Felt There are many misconceptions about blindness and blind people with which I’ve been successfully coping for over three decades. I’m often told, “We’re going to <fill in the blank> for your own good.” When flying the things with which the blank can be filled in range from “Move you to the bulkhead […]
An Open Letter to American Airlines: I’ve always enjoyed adventure and new experiences and have, thus, flown many times with my five Seeing Eye dogs. Over more than thirty years I’ve developed a system that works quite well in terms of ensuring both I and my dog are safe, comfortable, and out of the way […]
An Open Letter to American Airlines: I’ve always enjoyed adventure and new experiences and have, thus, flown many times with my five Seeing Eye dogs. Over more than thirty years I’ve developed a system that works quite well in terms of ensuring both I and my dog are safe, comfortable, and out of the way […]
Home Again I think we always knew we’d come back to Maine. We’ve lived here twice, once in the Rockland area and, later, in the Ellsworth area. We, both of us, love everything about the coast of Maine. Our new house is a geodesic dome on 18 acres on Great Pond in Franklin. We have […]
“I Should Have Known” The next morning we loaded into vans and the trainers took us all to the downtown training center. One by one each student had their first “Juno walk.” “Okay Sue, you’re next.” Rising to my feet I waited for Joan to approach. “Are you ready?” “I’m beyond ready, I replied. “Okay, […]
We’re Getting There It was the first time I had flown without a dog in twenty-five years. Everything was different. First, no one seemed to believe I was really blind. I was using the collapsible cane I had kept in my office for ten years. When collapsed nobody seemed to know I had it with […]