In American Sign Language, the sign for “snow” is equal to saying “white rain” in English. You take your dominant hand and place is flat on your chest. Slowly pull your hand out away from your chest, at the same time closing your hand into a circle. Then take the same hand and place it in the air about head level, and bring it down while wiggling your fingers.
The first part of the sign is “white,” and the second part is “rain.” Doing the signs together, you are saying “snow.” And oh, I am beginning to hate snow.
I am so irritated and frustrated, and it’s nobody’s fault. Mother nature can not be controlled. Because of all this bad weather places are getting, the airlines are jammed.
The Northeast region of the country is getting pounded and everything seems to be closing. It’s not just the Northeast though. Even Dallas has two feet of snow.
So Edward has been trying to call all of the airlines, and can’t get through to any of them. Continental, Southwest, Delta, and several others don’t even give a hold time. They just simply say that they are not taking any more calls.
American Airlines let him through, and the hold time was going to be three hours. He held while doing other tasks around the house. When he was finally placed through to a representative, they couldn’t hear him and the call was disconnected.
All that waiting for nothing! My appointment in L.A. is less than two weeks away. I need a flight ASAP. We could book it online, but with the airport so jammed right now, and we have no way of knowing how long they will be that way, we are afraid that we will get stuck in the layover city and miss the flight to L.A. and therefore miss the appointment.
These tickets are too expensive to book and then change because you miss an appointment. Also, we want to talk to the airline to alert them to all of the disabilities and assistance we’ll need.
I have to let them know about this feeding tube so that in security they don’t hassle me or try to yank it out. Also, we could try to get a discounted or free ticket for one person being my attendant since I am deaf-blind.
Not all airlines will do it, but I know Continental will let an attendant fly free with me for safety and communication. Sure wish we could get through to them. There is no way to get this if I book it online.
I may end up having to change my appointment date, which I really, really don’t want to do. This complete silence is killing me. My brain needs some sort of stimulation other than touch all day long. But, I may have no choice. If we are still unable to get through by this coming Wednesday, I guess I’ll have to put off the ABI activation until March, or whenever they can get me in. This stupid white rain…I hate it. It’s messing up all my plans.
Blind people have things in order for the most part. When that order gets messed up, bad things can happen.
Edward and I always put things back where we got them, and make sure all chairs are pushed in before we leave, things in the floor are picked up so we don’t trip.
I had an aid that was coming to help me with a few house chores a few hours a day. I can do these tasks on my own, but it would take a much longer time and I haven’t learned to take my time and be patient yet. Although, the deaf-blind life will eventually teach me this. She would do things like sweep and mop the kitchen floor, vacuum the living room, and anything else that would be difficult with bad balance.
My first aid didn’t do what she was supposed to. She would just sit around and talk on her phone, or something else that I’m not sure of because I can’t see to find out for certain, and can’t hear well enough to hear what she is doing.
I requested a new aid. They sent another lady that was younger. They told me she could sign. She got here and her voice is right at the perfect tone that I can’t hear at all. She couldn’t sign. I had to hold my hand out and let her write everything. This was especially difficult because she wouldn’t listen when I told her to go slow and big.
She came back the next day and I was going to the kitchen to make my son some oatmeal. The aid wasn’t even supposed to be in the kitchen on this particular day. I get over the baby gate and start walking toward the table. My right leg, which is weak, hits something and that makes me lose my balance even more and I fell.
I didn’t just half way fall. I completely lost all balance and there was nothing to catch myself with. We have an island in the middle of the kitchen. I fell and hit my right cheekbone on that. All of my body weight was falling, and there was nothing that caught me except my face on the island counter. I’m just thankful it wasn’t the corner.
It was the most horrific sound. “Crack!” and then I got extremely dizzy, and my head was roaring. I couldn’t hear anything for few seconds except the roar. Slowly hearing began to come back and Isaiah was crying. I pushed my self up even though I was shaking, to see what was wrong with him.
Nothing was wrong with him. He didn’t fall. He just saw me fall and it must have scared him. I let him know I was ok and didn’t make a big deal out of it for his sake, but I could already feel my face swelling.
I knew this was going to leave a bruise, and I knew I had to go to the dentist later in the day. If anyone sees a bruise on a woman, they immediately suspect the husband put it there. Especially with the location on this one. So I called Edward at work and let him know if I should still go. He said yeah, but wanted to know what happened. I told him that I would tell him when he got home.
I put ice on it for a long time to try to get the swelling down. Then I tried my best to cover it with make-up before I went out. I guess I did a good enough job, because no one mentioned it.
I wish I had someone to take a picture and show you all. The mark is still there. I have a big ugly bruise now, and it ‘s very sore even for me to touch it.
I called the agency that provided the aid and told them I wanted to cancel my services. I don’t want an aid anymore. I will do the chores myself, even if it takes me four times as long. I just have to remember to pace myself and that will make it a little easier on the balance.
Edward was really ticked off because the fall was the aids fault. He asked where the chair was so I told him and he didn’t quite understand. So I went and showed him. He was like me, “what was it doing way over here? What for?” He wanted to know why she didn’t tell me that there was a chair in the middle of the floor. I told him I didn’t know but I had already canceled them.
Why can’t people put things back where they got them? There are so many things that I can’t find because the aids put them in strange places. I found a measuring cup in the pantry, and the bowl down with the pans. I’ll never understand why if they don’t know where something goes to ask and find out. Don’t just stick it anywhere it will fit.
Having help made things harder for me and Edward because we never knew where anything was. We thought about quitting the service for that reason alone. But me falling and hitting my head was the last straw.
Seriously, they need a car for the blind already. Or I just need to have a lot of money to hire a driver.
Today I went to Batteries Plus to pick up a Battery for Edward. I scheduled the ride with paratranswet yesterday. That’s the rules; schedule the trip the day before. So I scheduled it to go there today at 10 and a 10:30 pick-up.
Well Mountain Mobility, the paratranset, picks me up at 8:30. They are allowed to pick you up an hour and a half before your scheduled drop-off. So I get on at 8:30 after dropping someone else off, I end up getting to Batteries Plus at 9:15. My thoughts were, “Oh dear, what am I going to do until 10:30?”
I get the battery that Edward had ordered and I pay for it. Then there is nothing left to do. I had my walker, thank heaven because today was a horrible balance day, and it has a seat. I just Sat near the door and played with my phone, let my mind wonder, all sorts of things for an hour and a half. I called and told Mountain Mobility that I was already ready for pick-up, and she said , “OkI’ll get someone to you as soon as I can.” Well the bus didn’t come back and get me until 10:45.
Sure paratranset is only $2 each way, but it is so annoying because you are wasting so much time.
Tomorrow I have an appointment to see my primary care doctor. The appointment is at 8, and Mountain Mobility called to let me know that they would be here at 6:45. Usually they don’t let people know, but I told them I can’t hear that great and I can’t see at all and I am not going to sit outside for an hour and 15 minutes just thinking that they could show up. So, 6:45. I’ll probably get to the doctor around 7:15 and have to wait until my appointment. All medical trips have to be two hours long, which is stupid in my opinion. so pick-up at 10, right? Well they called to let me know that they would pick me up at 10:25 instead.
It is so frustrating! I am going to waste like 4 hours tomorrow just waiting around doing nothing. I can’t take a book or anything because braille books are huge. If I could afford it, I would just pay a cab so that I wouldn’t have to worry. Sure paratranset might be cheap service, but it’s a headache because of the inconvinience.
Why can’t I drive, have a driver, or enough money to pay a cab round trip? If I did it would take all of an hour and a half, if that, for me to go from my house to the doctor, have the appointment, and come home. Instead I’ll waste yet another morning and then be so tired for the rest of the day.
I do not know why things have to be so difficult. I have been trying to sign up for a MySpace account. All of my highschool friends eem to be on there and nowhere else. So I decided I would finally sign up.
Huge problem! While signing up it asks for me for stupid verification code. There is no audio link for this and even if there was, my hearing is too bad. So I emailed them and asked them how they suppose I get an account set up if I can’t do the verification code?
I never got a response back from them so I had a sighted friend help me with this. She set the account up. Great, then I got an email to confirm it. I clicked on the link in the email…
Yet another verification. Just great. So yet again, I have her click the link in the confirmation email. She enter the verification and is able to log in and out of my account with no more verifications.
So I am all excited now, it’s going to work!
Wrong! It asks me for an evil verification code. So I have another friend log in, and she gets the verification request too but once she does that then she doesn’t have to do it again. So it appears to be that when you try to log in from a different computer, a verification code is needed.
I finally heard back from MySpace and I seriously think they need to get a dictionary and go over the definition for “blind”.
They tell me that captias are there for a reason to prevent spam. Also I can change it one I log into my account, that captias are needed to comment, add a friend, and so on. But if another person has their settings that captia is needed to add them, then I would still have to do the captia. I just “need to read it slowly and type carefully.”
So there is a program for the visually impaired that works with Firefox and will help solve a captia. It is called Webvisum So I get that all installed and that is a headache within itself because of cookies. So I get it all set up and go to log in to my account that a friend created.
Verification. Got it, my program solved the captia and I pasted it in the box. It went to another page, but nothing was different. It was just asking for verification again. It didn’t give me an error, but it didn’t let me in either.
Cancel an account and set up an account again. In order to cancel you must click on a link in an email and that blasted thing wanted a verification code as well.
I tried to create an account with another email that I have. All is well until it gets to the verification code. Even though I have a code and put it in, it will not let me create, log in, cancel, anything.
This is wrong on so many levels. How is MySpace allowed to get away with this? Blind people, and there are quite a few of us, have the right to create an account to. One of the things that every place tells you is do not give out your password. Well in order for a blind person to either get an account created or need help within the account, we must give our password to someone. I trust the person I used. But what if she ever decided to get mad at me and log into my account and do stuff? This would not happen, because I trust the person, but I am just saying what if.
Do any of you think this is right? So now I can not get an account on MYSpace and I don’t know what to do. I am just extremely irritated at the moment and if they had a phone number I would call them and tell them all about it. But they only seem to do email which takes two days for them to get back with you.
MySpace is being pure evil to me.
Oh boy folks. My last couple of days have been terrible! Tuesday I had to go to WIC and then to the dentist. Well I scheduled a ride last Wednesday with Mountain Mobility, it’s sort of like the bus system but for disabled people that does curb to curb service. They are allowed to have an hour and 15 minutes window. So say the appointment is at 1 they have to get you there at least by 12:45, so from that they have an hour and 15 to play with. so they could pick you up as early as 11:30 or later closer to actual time. They get there and are only required to wait 5 minutes and if you are not out there ready they can leave and write you as a no-show. If you get 3 no-shows you lose your service.
So Tuesday I had a trip to the health department in the morning to pick up the WIC. Mountain Mobility picked me up at 8:00 and I got to the health department like at 8:30. My appointment wasn’t until 9:15. This is normal for me to have to wait forever. But the WIC office got me in and did what they needed to do actually early. So I was ready to leave around when my sscheduled appointment was. Well last time I was there they took forever, so i scheduled my return pick up for like an hour and a half after the appointment. So I waited outside for an hour and 15 minutes even though I called dispatch and told them I was ready sooner.
So they drove me back home and I had a little bit of time to do a few things. Then I had to go to the dentist. Appointment was at 1, I didn’t want to be considered a no-show and since I can’t see them from the window or hear if it’s them I have to be outside waiting. I went out at 11:30 because they could get there that early. Waited and waited, no bus. So at 12:30 I call dispatch and tell them I still don’t have a van and my appointment is at 1, I have to be there by 12:45 to fill out papers. They promise a bus asap and I continue waiting. Finally the driver shows up. I swear we hit every red light there was while going to the dentist. I get to the dentists office at 12:59. The driver is an older man and wants to escort me to the counter so I allow him even though I usually find the counter by myself. The lady immediately starts talking to him telling him that he’ll have to help me fill out some papers. He tells her that he can’t, he’s just the driver and all this nonsense. I speak up then and say you’ll have to get someone else to help me fill them out or fill them out yourself. Then she proceeds to talk to my driver! By this point I was getting irritated. She tells him that they may just have to take me home and he explained how the service worked and that I already have a pick up time scheduled so I’d have to wait. I was like, “what? Go home? I’m confused. Go home because I can’t fill out the papers?” She tells me a bunch of crap about how they don’t have the man power to help me. I was like “man power? to fill out some papers? It won’t take more than 5 minutes.” she tells me it’s lengthy, wow a whoel 2 pages! The older gentleman helps me find a chair while the receptionist tries to go find someone to help me.
She comes over to my chair, tells me that she is going to call mountain mobility and let them know that I am ready for pick up. I was like huh? I haven’t seen the dentist yet. She says that noone can help me and I will have to take the papers home and get them filled out and then come back, reschedule my appointment. I said, “all because I can’t fill out the papers you’re going to make me reschedule? And no I can’t get them filled out at home either because my husband is blind too.” That confused her. We argued for about 2 more minutes and she went on about how no she couldn’t do it because it was a legthy form and they just don’t have the time to help me. I argued back that all the time it was taking her to look for someone we could have already had it filled out. Wasn’t getting anywhere with this lady. Asked to speak with her supervisor. She was at lunch. Be back in an hour. Great, I’ll wait.
Finally the office manager came and got me and took me back to her office. Told me that there was just no one to help me and if I’d told them I was blind when they scheduled my appointment they could have scheduled another block of time and had someone there to help me. I said no just get someone to write down the few things I need and that is it. I don’t need a seperate appointment for that. She tried telling me they dind’t have the man power either. I told her if they were that busy, then they needed to hire more people. She said the receptionist couldn’t help me because she’s not allowed to leave the desk and leave the phone unattended. I said great we can fill them out at the counter doesn’t matter to me. She told me no we couldn’t because that would be violating HIPPA. “Well do you know that you are still violating something by refusing to help me fill out these papers?” That caught her off guard. She went on to tell me they were going to reschedule my appointment because it was half past1 by then. I asked her for a written statement saying that they are refusing to help me fill out the paperwork. She wouldn’t do it. I said well I’m not leaving this office until I either see the dentist, or get that written statement.
She called around and got me in at 2 and helped me fill the papers out herself. Hopefully I won’t have to deal with that mess anymore. I had my teeth cleaned and ex-rays and saw the dentist. All four of my wisdom teeth are coming in and they are all impacted. No wonder I’ve been in so much pain. So I have to find an oral surgeon now that will take medicaid and have them all cut out before they cause even more problems.
I got home around the same time Edward got home from work. I told him about my frustrating day and finished off my day pretty good. I was fully intending to file a complaint with someone. I wasn’t sure who I was going to complain to,but I would have figured it out if they would have rescheduled my appointment. I knew the first part of filing a complaint would be proving it so that is why I asked for the written statement. They have to accomidate me and they were not getting that through their thick heads. Many people would have just given in and left, not wasted all of that time. But I was in pain, I knew something was wrong, and I had wasted my time already getting up there and I didn’t want this office thinking that they didn’t have to help disabled people. If we all gave in, then we’d never get anywhere.
Yesterday I called and left a message with an oral surgeon. The only one I could find that would take medicaid is in a town 2 hours away. I was hoping to find one closer. I called my doctor back about a hearing aid. Left a message so hopefully they call me back today. I want to try to get a hearing aid for this left ear.
I’ve been in so much pain for the past week. My wesdom teeth are killing me. My jaw feels like it’s been broken and sometimes I can barely open my mouth. Not to mention I’ve been sick off and on for the past few days. Stomach keeps cramping and so on. So, this has not been a fun week for me. I’m hoping and praying that next week will be better.
Holly
