NOVEMBER/DECEMBER/JANUARY 2025 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
www.tucsonsocietyoftheblind.org
Download Printable Version PDF MS Word
Calendar
NOVEMBER
1st: Lunch on your own at El Molinito Mexican Restaurant 2323 N. Pantano Rd. 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM. Please let Barb know if you are coming so she can reserve seating.
5th: Jan Cleere – History of Arizona Women
9th: Play 9-5 play musical at Arts Express Theater in Park Place Mall, 5870 E. Broadway, Be there by 1:15 PM, audio described by Marsha Berger, Arts Express Theater is located near where Macy used to be on the west entrance. Dinner TBA
12th: Annual Meeting – TSB Members will elect the TSB Board of Directors. Members will hear both the President’s and the Treasurer’s reports. Members will have the opportunity to make suggestions to the TSB Board. A lunch of Submarine Sandwiches will be provided. Get a 12:15 Sun Van out.
15th: Board Meeting 10:15 AM Biscuit Country Café, 7026 E Broadway
19th: Maria Bravo of AZ Independent Blind Program will talk about her job and resources available for the visually impaired.
19th: Manny’s iPhone Class on Zoom 6:30-8:30 PM
26th: Thanksgiving Vacation: No meeting at church
DECEMBER
3rd: Craig Plotner will perform Christmas songs and the oldies on his guitar.
7th: Disability Pride Day at Udall Senior Center, 7200 E. Tanque Verde, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
8th: Beauty and the Beast play at Arts Express Theater in the Park Place Mall 5870 E. Broadway Be there at 1:15 PM. Contact Barb for tickets.
10th: Christmas Party, Chili Potluck, Christmas Concert by the Tucson Society Singers. A Gift Exchange will follow. Gifts need to be wrapped and marked for men and woman. Gifts should cost no more than $15 and no alcoholic beverages please. Get a 12:15 PM out on Sun Van.
17th: Lunch on your own at Oregano’s restaurant, 4900 E. Speedway from 11:00 to 1:00 PM. Please let Barbara know if you are coming so she can reserve the seats.
24th: Vacation – No Meeting at the church
29th: Wizard of Oz play at Berger Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Speedway, 2:15 PM (520) 770-3762 Tickets $31 each.
31st: Vacation – No meeting at the church
JANUARY
7th: Fire Safety and Fall Prevention by Casey, City of Tucson
10th: Board Meeting 10:15 AM Biscuit Country Café, 7026 E Broadway
14th: Take a Breath Break presentation – Reduce stress, manage pain and sleep better by using techniques from the Practice of Mindfulness. Join Dan Johnson, Author and President of the Wellness Council of Arizona, for this sampling of approaches to relaxation
15th: Lovin Life Expo, 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Reid Park Doubletree Hotel, 445 S. Alvernon Way. Free goodies, hourly raffle drawing for $100, entertainment and fun. Lunch on your own afterwards.
21st: Barbara will talk about the philosophy of blindness. She will mention all the services offered by the American Council of the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind
28th: Timette will present a lesson on gardening while others play bingol
Message by Barbara Macpherson
It’s time to celebrate the holiday season.
We hope you will join us for TSB Annual Meeting on Tuesday, November 12th where we will be electing two new board members Melissa Elias and Jennifer Telez. At the meeting you will also hear the President’s Message and the Treasurer’s Report.
Also, we hope you will join us the TSB Christmas Party on Tuesday, December 10th where we will hear a performance by our TSB Singing Group.
I wish to give thanks all of you who sold and those who bought Jim Click Raffle tickets. All of the money raised goes to TSB programs. I also wish to thank all the volunteers who make our weekly programs and field trips a success.
TSB has made a donation to Arts Express to help pay for audio-described live plays. During the play, Marsha will describe what is going on the stage in between dialog. This service has not been offered before and it will make a big difference to the enjoyment of the play for the blind individual. If you are interested in buying a ticket to attend the 9-5 musical on Saturday, November 9th or the Beauty and the Beast play on Sunday Dec.8 , call Barbara at 520-298-2427. Tickets are $30 each.
Have a Happy and Healthy Holiday season!
News You can Use by Barbara
This summer we had two guest speakers on the phone. The first was Barbara Hinske, author of Guiding Emily, The Unexpected Path, Over every Hurdle, and Down the Aisle. She nailed how it feels to lose vision. Her other audio book series Coming to Rosemontand Weaving the Strands just was added to the Arizona Talking Book Library and BARD as well.
The second guest speaker was Tricia from Blind Girl Designs who spoke about starting her own company despite being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. Her unique designs feature the white cane combined in scenes in many shapes and forms I have a Halloween one three dancing skeletons holding white canes.
The t-shirts are $29 each and are made of 100% cotton which definitely will shrink in the dryer.
Tricia Waechter’s contact Info is Blindgirldesigns.com, (862) 448 1011
For those of you with iPhones there is a free app in the app store called VO Starter that has a series of lessons on learning how to use the iPhone with VoiceOver. For those of you with Android phones there is a free series on Hadley Learning Center on Talk Back and using your smart phone with low vision.
Hadley has the same series of workshops on using Siri and VoiceOver. Call Hadley, 800-323-4238 and have them put the workshops on cartridge for you which can be read by the Arizona Talking Book Library Player.
THE SOCIETY SINGERS By Timette Middelkoop
Hello! Can you believe it’s almost the end of the year? 2024 has flown by. I hope you’ve been having fun exploring hobbies and developing new interests.
In that regard, several TSB members people have stepped out to form a singing group because of their love of music. So, I would like to introduce to you the musical group that will be performing at the TSB Christmas party – The Society Singers!
First up is the aristocratic Angela. She spent time working with the Frequent Flyer program for United Airlines which allowed her to travel to Canada, Hawaii and Australia!
Following her is the divine Diane M, whose sense of adventure led her to become a nurse at the age of 50! She eventually worked in ambulances to care for those in need.
Next up is the dynamic Diana S. She’s a crafty one – painting, embroidery, ceramics and crocheting. Her newest hobby is knitting. Joining her onstage is the gracious Gina. She has served as the TSB Vice President for a number of years and you will know her by the gentle voice you hear as she circles the tables to say hi to everyone.
Next is the sensational Shirley. As worker at Mattel Toys for 22 years, she broke stereotypes by not limiting herself to items just for girls. She leveraged her work with the genteel and delicate Barbie to help produce WWE action figures.
Our last singer is the terrific Timette. She traveled the world with a Christian drama group, and met her husband of nearly 35 years in South Africa.
Finally, our choral director is the melodious Melissa. You see her most often as one of our tremendous volunteer doing all she can for us at our Tuesday meetings and at public events. Having led various music groups and choirs over a span of 20 years, she was kind enough to offer her services to our group.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this introduction to our musical group! We have enjoyed ourselves very much putting together our program and look forward to sharing it with you in December. You are very special to all of us!
We also hope that this year has been an exciting one for you and that 2025 will bring you many opportunities to develop the skills and talents to let you enjoy life to the fullest! – Timette
Free catalogs for low vision aids
• Independent Living Aids 800-537-2118
• HearMore 800-881-4327
• LS&S 800-468-4789
• Maxi Aids 800-522-6294, 631-752-0521
• Speak to Me 800-248-9965
Gifts Ideas for the Visually Impaired Individuals
Different sized trays can be purchased from Maxi Aids. Trays are good for taking pills or lining up cooking items.
Bump dots can be used for marking items and can be purchased from Amazon, HearMore, and Independent Living Aids.
Special 20/20 pens are available from HearMore. These dark, bold pens do not bleed through the paper and are easy to read. They come in a box of 12.
A Color Remo talking color reader will identify colors of clothing for you. New ones cost $200.00 plus shipping. On eBay we got one for $60.00.
A Soft Men’s Leather Wallet from Independent Living Aids has three sections for bills and six pockets for credit cards and cost $22.95.
You can get an iPhone SE 2 model for under $200. Although there is a learning curve to learn how to use Siri and VoiceOver on the iPhone, there are really so many things you can do with it.
A Talking Watch or a Key Chain Watch can be purchased from Amazon. As an example, one watch model is the Cirbic English Talking Watch for Visually Impaired. It has large numbers, a North American male voice, an expandable strap, is self-setting, silver in color, and costs $29.98 (with $2.00 discount coupon).
Large-print playing cards, Uno, Scrabble, tactile dice, and other tactile board games can be purchased from Independent Living Aids and are a lot of fun.
A Portable Ott Light with rechargeable batteries can be used to light up your dinner plate and can be purchased from Amazon.
A tape recorder such as Micro Speak can be used to record notes.
Amazon Smart Plugs controlled by voice through an Alexa Echo Dot can be used to turn on lights, fans, or coffee pots, and are a good choice. And among many other features, the Amazon Echo Dot itself can also be used to make phone calls.
Talking Alexa enabled microwave ovens and an Amazon Basics Air Fryer can be purchased from Amazon.
Audiobooks accessed through a subscription to Audible can be a wonderful gift so that friends or family members can listen to the latest best sellers. Audiobooks are about $15 each and can be listened to on an Amazon Echo device.
An example of an affordable, hand-held electronic magnifier is the Eyoyo Electronic Magnifier found on Amazon. This 5-inch screen electronic magnifier has two distance settings on it with one being for close reading and the other for reading things further away. You can change the font color to make it easier to see and you can also even freeze an image. (That feature would be handy, say, for reading a price tag found up high.) Most electronic magnifiers start at $800.00, so this electronic magnifier for $169.99 is a bargain. There is also available a smaller 3.5 inch display model for just $75.99. You can click HERE to take you right to the ad on for the 5” magnifier.
Labeling systems such as PenFriend can be purchased for clothes to label colors. Theses special labels are able to be washed in the laundry. Recordable audio labels can be used to mark anything such as pills tops, freezer bags, important papers, etc. Click HERE for availability at MaxiAids for $153.75.You can click HERE to take you right to the PenFriend 3 ad.
Another item to mark things are Waytags. If you want to label something that’s inside, outside, wet, dry, hot, or cold, there’s a WayTag that will attach securely. WayTags come as stickers, buttons, magnets, and clips. Each of the different styles of WayTags work exactly the same. Simply choose the WayTag that’s best for what you want to label.
Label your kitchen, clothing, or medication. Tag specialty items and tools for hobbies. Organize lots of information about one thing on a single WayTag. Scan each WayTag 100,000 times or more.
Laundry Starter Pack $48.99 – The Laundry Starter Pack contains WayTag® 2-hole buttons plus a blind-friendly sewing kit—everything you need to get started tagging your clothing with WayAround. Click HERE for the ad.
Starter Pack $74.99 – The Starter Pack includes 60 total WayTag® products, in an assortment of all of our product styles for your kitchen, closet, bathroom or office. Click HERE for the ad.
In closing, for those expensive gift items, family members and friends could each donate a specific dollar amount to combine toward the gift.
Christmas Jokes
How do you know Santa has to be a man?
No woman is going to wear the same outfit year after year
What is every parent’s favorite Christmas song?
Silent Night!
Why did Rudolph have to attend summer school?
Because he went down in history
Why did the scarecrow get a big Christmas bonus?
Because he was outstanding in his field
What kind of money do elves use?
Jingle bills
What do you call Santa when he stops moving?
Santa Pause
What do snowmen eat for dessert?
Ice Krispies
What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?
Frostbite
What do you get when a snowman has a temper tantrum?
A meltdown
What do you call a deep-fried Santa?
Crispy Cringle