AUGUST/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 NEWSY NOTES
TSB meets every Tuesday – 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Christ Presbyterian Church, 6565 E. Broadway
Come when you can and leave when you must. Bring a sack lunch.
For more information call Barbara, 520-298-2427
Meetings are on thephone for the month of August. Call 605-468-8020 access code 969009# (The first phone call meeting is on August 8th.)
www.tucsonsocietyoftheblind.org
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Calendar
AUGUST
1st: Vacation – No meeting
8th: No meetings at the church this month. We will be on the phone by 9:55 AM. The TSB phone is 1-605-468-8020, access code 969009 (pound).
8th: We will listen to Hadley Podcast Bison Bloopers which is funny. Be prepared to share your own vision bloopers.
11th: Board Meeting, 10:15 AM at Biscuit Country Café 7026 E. Broadway.
15th: Meet at the Black Bear Diner 6995 E. Broadway Blvd, 11:15 AM with a 1:00 to 1:30 PM ride out. Lunch is on your own.
15th: Manny’s iPhone Class 6:30-8:30 PM on Zoom
22nd: Steve Patton, an Orientation and Mobility instructor, will tell his life story of dealing with vision loss.
29th: Teresa Christian, a Hull Foundation instructor, will talk about Gratitude and Making Life Choices and Being Visually Impaired
SEPTEMBER
5th: Vacation – no meeting on phone or church
8th: Board Meeting, 10:15 AM at Biscuit Country Café, 7026 E. Broadway Blvd.
12th: Rex Scott Pima County Supervisor, will be discussing Roads and Preschool Programs.
15th: Field trip –TBA
19th: Today we will watch the History of Vail Pioneers. We will have popcorn and watch for one hour. Then we will have a pizza lunch break. Then we will watch the last hour. Get an 1:00-1:30 PM ride out.
19th: Manny’s iPhone class on Zoom 6:30-8:30 PM
26th: Barbara and Nancy will lead a discussion on “Dealing with those Pesky Feelings Associated with Vision Loss, and Handling Stress and the Philosophy of Blindness.”
OCTOBER
3rd: Patty Breen will demonstrate devices or microwave cooking, pouring and measuring, and share some recipes. Manny will demonstrate the Alexa app and the Echo Show skills that Alexa can perform.
6th: PizzaParty at John McCann’shouse. His address is 8761 E. Placita Bolivar. Be there at 10:00 AM with a 2:00 PM ride out. Don’t miss the fun. John has a wonderful shady patio.
10th: State Representative, Nancy Gutierrez of District 18, will discuss educational and environmental issues. There will be a potluck. Plan for a 12:00 -12:45 PM Sun Van ride out.
13th: Board Meeting 10:15 AM at Biscuit Country Café, 7026 E. Broadway
17th: JJ Ricos, of Arizona Center for Disability Law, will discuss the ADA (American Disability Act) and the legal cases pending in Arizona.
17th: Manny’s iPhone class on Zoom 6:30-8:30 PM
20th: Field Trip – TBA
24th: Historian, Jan Lovecchio, will be discussing the first woman recalled from office in Arizona and how women got the right to serve on juries in Arizona.
31st: Get dressed up for Halloween. Bill Martin will perform the oldies on his guitar. He will also play Monster Mash and the Addams Family tunes.
NOVEMBER
3rd: Field Trip – TBA
7th: TBA
14th: Annual TSB Meeting. Members will elect a Board of Directors and hear the President’s and Treasurer’s Reports. Lunch will be served after the Annual Meeting.
17th: Board Meeting 10:15 AM at Biscuit Country Café, 7026 E. Broadway
21st: Vacation – No meeting at church
21st: Manny’s iPhone class on Zoom, 6:30-8:30 PM
28th: TBA
President’s Message by Barbara Macpherson
Happy Summer! Your TSB Board is busy planning for the TSB Annual Meeting and Board Election on Tuesday November 14, 2023. In addition to electing the Board of Directors, we will also be hearing the President’s and Treasurer’s Reports.
If you want to run for the board here are the requirements:
• You need to be a member in good standing, who attends the weekly meetings and field trips.
• You need to have a computer or iPhone with email to receive messages.
If interested, in running for the board, let Barbara know by October 1st so the TSB Board can approve your nomination. It is also suggested that you attend a TSB Board meeting so you know what being a TSB Board Member entails.
TSB is proud to celebrate TSB’s 20th Anniversary. We started with 13 members and we now have 45 members. Please pay your dues and attend board meetings on the second Friday of the month.
Check out the new updated TSB website at tucsonsocietyoftheblind.org. You will find pictures of our field trips under Photo Album, 10 useful articles on vision loss written by Annie Schlesinger, resources, and copies of recent TSB newsletters. I wish to thank Cherie and Joe from Redlime for all their hard work on updating the web site.
I will close with some of my favorite sayings. “Keep your eye on the doughnut not the hole.” “Get better not bitter.” And finally, “Despite the fear, pack up your saddlebags and get ready to explore the world.
Using Uber and Lyft Ride Sharing App
Open the Uber app on your iPhone. The three important items are where to, confirming the lowest price and. confirming your pickup location. Once the address or your home address appears in the text , do not confirm or double tap on that. If you do, the app thinks you want to change the location. On Uber, once you tap on Confirm pick up location, you have confirmed the ride.
Try calling the driver to let them know you are legally blind. Turn the silent caller setting off of the iPhone. Always ask the driver who they are there for. Keep the app open so the driver can find you. Sometimes you can call the driver and ask them to honk twice in a busy location. Give yourself time to focus and order the ride.
There is another way to order a Uber ride. You can call 1-833-873-8237 in Arizona and California. This service will cost you an extra $5 but you get to talk to a live person. This person will send you a text with a four digit code that you have to repeat to confirm your identity. I used this service once and found it helpful.
When using Lyft, you can have a preprogrammed message that lets the driver know you are blind. You can also book the Wait and Save option which means the ride will come in 15 to 20 minutes and thus save some money. And finally, you can also book your ride ahead of time.
By the way, Lyft has a way you can support the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). Under Menu, you can select NFB. The ride will be rounded up to the nearest dollar so NFB will get the change.
Protect Your Precious Eyes Indoors
• Wear protective glasses or goggles when using chemicals, cleaners, aerosols and sprays.
• Everyday household items like Knives, forks, scissors, paper clips and wire hangers can accidentally cause injury. Handle with care.
• When cooking food that splatters always wear protective eyewear and use a grease shield.
• Attend to hazards that can cause falls. Secure rugs and eliminate clutter. Improve contrast and lighting. Be aware of sharp edges.
By conquering our self-limiting fears, we too can chart meaningful life paths, “eyes wide open.
By Aruna Sankaranarayanan
“I’ve gained vision by losing my sight,” confesses Issac Lidsky in his candid and literally eye-opening memoir, Eyes Wide Open. First diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease, at the age of thirteen, Lidsky’s sight gradually deteriorated during his teens and early twenties. By the age of 25, he was fully blind. At first, he didn’t really notice but slowly he perceived ‘holes’ which only increased in “size and number” as the years progressed. When he received the diagnosis at the age of 13, he was wrought by fear as a dark and hopeless future beckoned him.
Remarkably, as his sight eroded, Lidsky gained deeper insight into human perception and began to appreciate how fear can be more blinding than the disease that robbed him of his sight. As Lidsky realized over time, we don’t just see what is out there through an objective lens. Rather, our memories, thoughts, assumptions and feelings also impact what we perceive. So, all of our perceptions, be it sight, sound or touch, are subjective and are shaped by the perceiver’s habits and instincts. Thus, you “create and perpetuate your own reality,” though it feels like you are passively observing the world around you, as it is.
During one of his early forays into “blind independence,” he decided to take a walk on his own using his cane to guide him. He left home on a hopeful and optimistic note only to be overcome with dread as he discovered he was lost after about an hour of walking around. Fear and its concomitant cousins like embarrassment, shame and sadness coursed through his being. He even began to panic.
But after sitting down by the curb and breathing deeply, Lidsky realized that fear can prevent you from seeing, just like his eyes. He calmed himself down and surveyed the options before him. What seemed like a herculean crisis a few minutes before, now boiled down to a manageable problem of retracing his steps and asking for directions. Overwhelming emotions, Lidsky discovered, can distort our perspective as much as or more than a faulty sense organ.
By constraining our focus, anxiety prevents us from seeing all the options available to us. Further, it immobilizes us from taking any corrective action, setting the stage for a self-fulfilling prophecy. In the early days, as his eyes eroded, Lidsky could not help catastrophizing about a future of gloom and doom. But as he gradually adapted to his changed world by using a cane, learning to use “special screen-reading software” and following practical tips from an occupational therapist, Lidsky had an epiphany that blindness could be tackled if he let go of his overarching fears and inhibitions.
He had to first dispel notions entrenched in him by societal conditioning. For example, he had to dismiss the idea that using a cane made him vulnerable. He had to let go of earlier assumptions that cast disability as ‘weakness’ and dependence on others as ‘insecurity.’Lidsky admits that he is ‘horrified’ by the misguided construction of disability that he himself had carried. As Lidsky learnt to accept his new reality, he counsels readers to follow their own unique paths without worrying about what other people might think.
FDR Memorial Accessibility
The FDR Memorial is located along Washington D.C.’s Tidal Basin and tells the story of the 32nd President through a series of outdoor “rooms.” Despite being designed to be entirely wheelchair accessible with tactile elements and braille placards, landscape architect Lawrence Halprin received criticism for choosing not to highlight FDR’s use of a wheelchair.
According to the National Park Service, a campaign led by the National Organization on Disability led to the dedication of the Prologue Room in 2001. It features a life-size statue of FDR seated in a wheelchair by sculptor Robert Graham. The artwork is placed in front of a wall inscribed with a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: “Franklin’s illness … gave him strength and courage he had not had before. He had to think out the fundamentals of living and learn the greatest of all lessons—infinite patience and never-ending persistence.”
Some Jeff Foxworthy Humor
You may be a redneck if… you have spent more on your pickup truck than on your education.
You may be a redneck if…your lifetime goal is to own a fireworks stand.
I’ve been to all 50 states, and traveled this whole country, and 90 percent of the people are good folks. The rest of them take after the other side of the family.
If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you’ll be going, ‘you know, we’re alright. We are dang near royalty.’
If you have a complete set of salad bowls and they all say Kool Whip on the side, you might be a redneck.
If you own a home with wheels on it and several cars without, you just might be a redneck.
If you’ve ever made change in the offering plate, you might be a redneck.
If your neighbors think you’re a detective because a cop always brings you home, you might be a redneck.
If your working television sits on top of your non-working television, you might be a redneck.
Watching a baby being born is a little like watching a wet St. Bernard coming in through the cat door.
The great thing about a tractor. You can’t really hear the phone ring.
I refuse to this day to do email because everybody I know that does it, it takes another two or three hours a day. I don’t want to give two or three more hours away.
I teach a Bible study for homeless guys in downtown Atlanta every week. Been doing it for years. That’s the guys I’d rather go talk to. I’d rather take my act outside the church.
For the first time ever, I was taking the family on the road. We stayed with my in-laws, which on life’s list of experiences ranks right below sitting in a tub full of scissors.
I say, if everybody in this house lives where it’s God first, friends and family second, and you third, we won’t ever have an argument.
It’s true I married my wife for her looks… but not the ones she’s been givin’ me lately.