Family
Often holidays can be stressful. In past years Thanksgiving meant traveling to Georgia, making arrangements for our cats, staying with my parents and just generally a lot of stress. It’s not that we didn’t want to do it. Family is important to us. It just required so much planning and effort and we were generally glad when it was over and we were back home with our cats, sleeping in our bed.
This year was different.
The events of the last year brought us back home. While those events were in no way desirable, the resulting move has been a big blessing.
This year Thanksgiving was at our house, twice. Thanksgiving with my family was Thursday and with Jules’ family was today (Saturday). Everyone was relaxed and the food was great both days. Everyone enjoyed themselves and there was very little stress.
I love my family and Jules’ family and enjoy spending time with both and I think we’ve established a new tradition because doing it all here has relieved a lot of stress from everyone else.
It is often mind boggling to me how God takes very difficult, even tragic situations in our lives and uses them to accomplish good things. As much as I would like to have my vision back I am repeatedly forced to recognize that I am in a better place than I was before losing my vision.
I don’t pretend to know or understand God’s plans but I just have marvel and praise Him when He continues to provide good things. I am so glad that He is running things and I’m not.
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Tags: blessings, gratitude general, ThanksgivingSocial Security Misinformation
For five months I’ve waited for Social Security to make a decision about my disability application. In that time I probably spoke to people in the SS office at least ten times and every single time I was told that if my application was approved I would be paid back to the date I became disabled. So for months we’ve beef counting on that big back pay check to help dig out of the hole this whole situation has put us in. It actually made it a little easier to be patient while waiting on the incredibly inefficient federal government.
When we found out I was approved last week we were elated but we were also frustrated because all we could find out about was my first monthly check coming in December. There was no mention of back pay and no one could tell me why or what the deal was. So waited on the approval letter hoping it would have more information or maybe a check. The letter came and still no mention of back pay.
So today I called again and got a completely different answer from what all previous SS reps had told me. I was told today, for the very first time, that I had to be disabled for five months before I could receive SSID. There will not be any back pay.
How is it that government agencies can be so totally incompetent? How could I have been given the same wrong information by multiple people over a period of five months? And what senesce does this rule make anyway? Has some idiot determined that a person should lose their house before getting any benefits?
I wish I didn’t need SSID. I wish I could see normally and continue to earn a living. But the fact is, here I am and I’ve paid into the system my entire working life. It may have been unrealistic but I expected better.
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Tags: blindness, Disability, Government, incompetence, social securityAnswered Prayer
After five months of waiting and being unable to get any answers I’ve finally been approved for Social Security disability. Even though my case is clear cut I still feared being turned down and having to fight. And now I find my benefit is almost $100 more per month than we had calculated.
Thanks to all who have been praying for us. God does answer prayer!
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Tags: Disability, prayer, social securityBallots mean nothing
It seems that ballots are now meaningless, at least in Alaska. Every state has barriers to getting on the ballot. The main way one gets on a ballot is to win their party’s primary. Alternatively there is usually a path through petitions to get on the ballot. But the fact is you can’t get on the ballot just because you want to.
Write in candidacies also exist because people want on the ballot but can’t get there. But now, according to the Alaska Supreme Court, none of that matters.
Lisa Murkowski’s campaign had managed to get poll workers to distribute her name in polling places which clearly amounts to electioneering and negates the barrier to getting on the ballot. Republicans sued to stop it and got a restraining order, which seem quite reasonable to me.
So what does the Alaska Supreme Court do? They stay the restraining order. So now all anyone who can’t get on the ballot has to do is have their name distributed at the polls.
Why bother having primaries at all? Just put everyone who wants to run on the ballot! That’s in effect what the court has just done, after all.
UPDATE:
It seems that a radio talk show host in Alaska, upset over the ruling, put out a call for citizens to sign up as write in candidates. The last count I heard was 56 new write in candidates poll workers have to distribute at the polls. That was an ingenious move and it perfectly illustrates my point. I wonder if the geniuses on the Alaska Supreme Court are rethinking their idiotic ruling?
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Tags: Alaska, ballots, Elections, PoliticsiPad Good & Bad
Let me start by saying the iPad is a game changer, indeed, a life changer for me. Even though the screen is small, with the right glasses and holding it close enough I am now able to read fairly easily for the first time since becoming legally blind several months ago. I just cannot adequately express just how huge that is.
Let me also say that I haven’t exactly been an Apple fan in the past. I’m a PC guy and have been for years. And one the biggest problems on a PC since the inception of the iPod is iTunes. To put it simply, iTunes on a PC just sucks! It has from the start and it still does. But now I have no choice but to use it if I want to put my music collection on my iPad or stay current on updates. I wish there was another option.
Then there’s the Safari browser. Yeah, that sucks too. I can’t believe the number of web sites I have trouble with because of Safari and they aren’t flash sites. I actually agree with Apple’s decision not to support flash because flash is a memory hog. No, I’m talking about simple things like scroll-bars on a web page that can’t be scrolled. On numerous sites I simply cannot see content “below the fold” and there appears to be nothing I can do about it.
Safari also doesn’t deal with the WordPress editor very well. Once I get beyond a couple of paragraphs I can’t convince Safari to keep the window where I’m typing which is pretty annoying since I can’t see what I’m writing. I can scroll back down but as soon as I type one character the window automatically scrolls back up on it’s own.
That’s enough of the bad for now, though I may have more to say in another post. For now let’s look at what works well for me.
Pinch zooming, which I believe has been around for some time on the iPhone and iPod, is a big plus. Many web pages wouldn’t be readable to me without it. But it’s important to note that pinch zoom doesn’t work everywhere. Primarily it works in Safari and in the email app. And sometimes, for reasons I’ve been unable to determine, pinch zoom doesn’t work in Safari. Also many web pages will only zoom so far and if you go farther it snaps back smaller when you lift a finger.
Fortunately there’s another option, the three finger tap. The three finger tap zooms the whole scree which means it no longer fit so you have to pan left and right as well as up and to see everything. This panning must also be done with three fingers. It is this feature, which is turned off by default, that really makes the iPad usable for me. The fact that it works everywhere means I can access menus and settings that would otherwise be out of reach for me.
Being a longtime PC guy means I’ve had to make some adjustments but they’ve been mostly painless. I’m looking forward to iOS 4.2 coming out next month which is supposed to add multitasking, folders and printing. Being able to print will make a big difference to me, as will being able to organize my apps into folders.
Apple has done a lot right in the iPad but there are real problems with Safari and Apple needs to address them. For most people the iPad is a convenience in addition to their computer. For people like me with major vision impairment it is a replacement that needs to work on the web.
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Tags: Apple, assistive technology, blindness, iPad, visually impairedChanges
A lot has happened since my last post. We’ve moved from South Carolina to Georgia, we’ve rented out our condo in SC, we’ve been looking for a church and I’ve triedti find things to occupy my time. That’s been no easy task with my new limitations. But that is changing.
I haven’t posted because it has gotten progressively more difficult to use a computer. Even with a big screen TV for a monitor the backlight was wiping out what vision I have and the problem gets worse as the sCreen gets bigger!
But thanks to my men’s Bible study group and my brother in law, I now have an iPad and it’s incredible what it allows me to do. Reading is once again a part of my life. I can do research on the web again and reading emails is so much easier. In fact, I’m writing this post on my iPad.
It seems counter intuitive that the iPad would be a good solution when a 20 inch monitor is unusable for me but the key is the interface. The screen is small enough that the backlight doesn’t wipe my vision while the interface makesit accessible to me. I highly recommend that anyone with low vision problems visit an Apple store and try one out.
I’m no Apple fanboy. This is the first Apple product I’ve ever owned and I still hate iTunes but this iPad is life changing for me.
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Tags: accessibility, Apple, iPad, low visionLatest Update
I know I’ve been a little slack in posting but I have an excuse. We’ve been pretty consumed with trying to move back to GA. And now that is happening!
<y lovely wife finally found a job in Atlanta making much more than she can make in Charleston. We move in two weeks back to where I grew up. In fact, that house we’re leasing is less than half a mile from my parents,
Also, for the first time ever, we’re using a moving company rather than moving ourselves. I’ve done my own move far to many times, not to mention moving friends over that years. We still have to pack though and that is the main focus right now. I’ll be glad when it’s done and we’re in the new house.
I’m sad leaving Charleston. I love this place and I’ve really put down roots. We have so many friends here and the best church I’ve ever been a member of at East Cooper Baptist Church. It is NOT easy to leave. But this is clearly the direction God is leading us and His plans are always better than mine.
It will be noce to be close to my parents who are getting older more in need of help from time to time. For years now they’ve not had either of their children close by. Now they will and they’re pretty excited that we’re moving back.
Still no word on Social Security but that’s no surprise. It is the government after all and they’re not exactly know for efficiency.
All in all God is really blessing us and I’m so thankful for that. Things can’t always be rosey but it’s nice when things go right and right now they are.
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Tags: blessings, moving, new jobA Baseball Post
Being stuck at home most of the time now, I watch a lot more TV than I used to. Thanks to my parents I have this nice big screen TV to watch and one thing that provides me a little sanity is the Atlanta Braves. I haven’t missed many games this year. If you aren’t a baseball fan you may want to skip this post because it is a baseball rant.
Everyone gets frustrated at umpires from time to time but they mostly do a good job. But sometimes they screw up so badly you just want to scream.
Such was the case the other night in game two of the Braves – Brewers series.
In game one of that series Tommy Hanson hit Prince Fielder with a pitch and Fielder was obviously angry as he headed to first base. He glared at Hanson all the way down the line.
Now Hanson has hit more batters this year than just about anyone because he likes to come in on hitters. And Fielder is just the type of hitter a pitcher needs to come inside on. This is just part of the game. It was not an intentional hit batsman.
Now to game two. Late in the game Jonny Venters came on in relief and Fielder was the first batter he faced. His first pitch sailed over Fielder’s head, which isn’t too unusual for Venters. He can be a little wild the first few pitches. Here’s where the problem comes in.
The umpire immediately issued a warning to the Braves, which was totally unnecessary and uncalled for. Then, on the very next pitch, Venters attempted to go inside and managed to hit Fielder. The result, in addition to Fielder going to first base, was the immediate ejection from the game of both Bobby Cox and Jonny Venters.
Now I admit that it didn’t look good but the question is, was there any reason for Venters to be intentionally throwing at Fielder in the first place and the and the answer is no. I think everyone would agree that we don’t need teams retaliating against each other for perceived offenses and I understand why this warning rule is in place. But the problem is, umpires have to try and determine intent and they simply can’t.
But this story gets even worse. That night a Brewers pitcher was also warned, then a Braves batter hit and no ejection resulted! And finally, Bobby Cox was suspended for one game, which he served last night, and Jonny Venters was suspended for four games, which he is appealing.
Thankfully none of this has hurt the Braves in terms of win-loss record, at least so far. The Braves won last night without Bobby Cox in the dugout. Venters did contribute to the win last night since his suspension is on hold pending the appeal.
But the fact is, this was nothing like a just action and clearly it was applied unequally between the Braves and the Brewers. I personally believe the warning against the Brewers was also unwarranted but it was issued and no ejection resulted when Braves batter was hit. Something is just fundamentally wrong with this whole situation specifically and with the rule as written in general. Umpires cannot be expected to decide what a pitcher is thinking in the absence of clear evidence of that thinking and the simple fact that a batter was hit is NOT evidence of anything except that the ball got away from the pitcher. It is not, in and of itself, evidence or intent.
I have no idea whether Venters suspension will be lessened or overturned but four games is just way to much. I hope Major League Baseball will correct this injustice.
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Tags: Atlanta Braves, baseball, Bobby Cox, Jonny Venters, suspension, umpiresA Little More Boredom Please
For the past month or so I’ve had off again, on again pain in my right hip. At times it’s been pretty severe and I wasn’t sure whether I actually had a hip problem or a sciatic nerve problem. I wasn’t too worried about it because it had pretty much gone away when it came back with a vengeance early last week, leaving me almost immobile at one point. So I made an appointment with the doctor for last Tuesday afternoon.
On Tuesday morning I was out with the IT company I’m turning my clients over to, showing them around one of my client locations. The pain in my hip was bearable so long as I walked slowly and didn’t make any sudden mover. I took them down a dark hallway to where a couple of computers were located, then turned right, through a door and up a short set of steps. At the top of the steps the world fell away.
There was a removable floor panel for access to subfloor wiring that someone left open and I went right through it. The first thing I can remember was an inability breathe which caused me to believe I had cracked ribs. The guys kept asking if I was okay but I couldn’t answer them because I couldn’t take a breath. After a few moments I managed to get a breath and tell them I was feeling better, then I passed out.
Apparently I was only out for maybe 30 seconds and when I came to, I was able to breathe and I wasn’t really in much pain at all. The guys helped me out of the hole and I sat down to gather my wits. At that point I thought I was okay except for sweating profusely because there was no air conditioning on in the room and it was very hot.
I ended up going back to the offices to cool off, where I ended up discovering I had indeed cracked ribs under my right arm. It took me probably half an hour to really recover but it seemed I was not seriously injured and I had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon anyway. What was really interesting was that within an hour of the accident my right hip was feeling much better. I’m about half convinced that the fall caused the sciatic nerve problem to be relieved.
At the doctor’s office I confirmed that the hip problem was indeed a sciatic nerve problem. I also confirmed that I had cracked ribs, which has been a lot of fun to deal with since.
All in all I did not have a particularly good week last week but I think the fall may have been worth it if it really did resolve the sciatic nerve issue.
For the most part I’m not in a lot of pain. Sitting is virtually painless but getting up and down is a slow process to minimize the pain involved. Of course, coughing, sneezing or laughing is a problem because each causes excruciating pain for a minute or two. So I really try to avoid any of those things so far as possible.
Perhaps I’m the victim of the Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times.”Over all I’m just about ready to stop having things happen to me. While I’ve had some problems with boredom since the vision problems began, I think a little boredom may be just what I need for a while.
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Tags: accidents, cracked ribs, fallNew Ideas
I wrote, a few posts back, about my experience with the lady from the South Carolina Commission for the Blind and how she basically accused me of being in denial. As time passes and I’m forced to face my limitations I find that she may have been right.
I’ve been convinced that I could still make a living on the computer doing things like WordPress design. I expected I’d have to learn some new skills but I saw that as just another hurdle. I’m finally beginning to realize that my vision simply isn’t going to allow me to do that. But I can’t see myself as a couch potato for the rest of my life so what to do?
One of my frustrations has been the cost of so much assistive technology for people with low vision or blindness. I’m convinced that the reason for some of the exorbitant prices is that in so many cased the end user isn’t paying for it, the government is. While that is a blessing for those who qualify, it removes the marketplace from the price equation, resulting in much higher prices. It’s the same problem we face with medicine as a while.
An example of what I’m talking about is a little program called ZoomText. ZoomText is a very nice little program that makes it much easier for the vision impaired to read on a computer. The problem is this little program costs as much as Microsoft Office or an iPad. It’s $500! If the actual market was dictating the price of this program it would likely be closer to $50 but the market is not setting the price.
ZoomText is just one example among many. For those who are not legally blind and therefore do not qualify for assistance, technology like ZoomText is simply out of reach.
So I’ve been thinking about what could be done.
I’m considering starting a non-profit to deal with this problem. The initial goal would be to raise enough money to hire a contract programmer or two to write a program to compete with ZoomText. As that grew we’d branch out into other areas of need. For example, smart phones are notoriously difficult for the vision impaired or those with low vision to use. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some apps to deal with that problem?
I see a real need here and no one is filling that need. Every agency or group I’ve found that deals with this stuff seems unable to provide any assistance unless you are legally blind. But a whole host of people are not legally blind, yet find it extremely difficult to read. And those without vision problems simply do not grasp just how basic to everyday life reading is. I’m learning that first hand and I want to do something about it.
So if you’re reading this and have ideas, suggestions, know anything about starting a non-profit or in any way want to help out, just leave a comment here. I think this is doable and very much worth doing. What are your thoughts?
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Tags: low vision, non-profit, vision impairedNext Page »
