Day 3: Pokemongo...technology drives a wife insane

Today has been a mental day...the things I have to do to make this world churn for my family. Up at 5.30am in the car by 6.15am drive 20klms to get my daughter to a religious class, from there drive the girls to school and then drive back home. 


Once at home I am involved in helping Deano chase invoices, being his eyes to read the bank statements and let him know what funds are outstanding. It's of course Deano's job to do the dirty work...putting on the washing and chasing outstanding money! Of which he is totally capable of doing. Sometimes I end up with washed in stains, or the occasional towels and whites that have turned pink when the odd coloured item gets mixed in the wash, but hey that's my excuse to go shopping and buy me some fresh towels and whites...nothing like new clean undies and fresh sweet smelling new towels! 

Our capabilities are totally matched...except when it comes to using new technology...that's when we both become unstuck. Dean uses a program called "Jaws". It's a program that will read most information on the screen...actually the program brings out my autistic traits...the monotone talking at high speed like a nagging "Rosie" the robot from the 80's cartoon The Jetsons. If my blindman could only see the daggers I'm sending his way when forgets to wear his headphones...he certainly hears my pleading "put your headphones on...it's driving me insane" Heaven help me if I had to rely on Jaws for my reading and bookwork...I think I would rather stick a rusty fork in my eye...no then I would have to use Jaws...I think that's what you call an oxymoron! 

Today was a day of new technology...with our new network marketing challenge that we've  taken on it has brought on new IT experiences that I've never had to deal with before...I had to download and work out how to use an  online webinar presentation for the first time.
Dean gives moral support which in this case is the only kind of support he can offer...he stands behind my seat and massages my shoulders...sort of like a boxing trainer pumping up the reluctant boxer ready to go back in the ring..until finally ...I conquered what I thought was unconquerable...and just like that 10 hours later I am ready to do my first online presentation.


How does one show their non-sighted husband how to use this frustrating program...I'll tell you how...I was like a little old Italian woman using all my big hand and arm expressions expressing my frustration with my whole body...Deano just standing back shaking his head, telling me to calm down...me getting up walking away and coming back about 10 thousand times so I would not put my fist through the screen...just like handling a unruly toddler I console myself...just walk away reset and try again.

I'll tell you tomorrow how I went...luckily I have a supportive team who are clicking into the webinar. If it all goes pear shape I am ready to climb into my warm bed and dream of a life that has absolutely no computer frustration only beaches with warm sand and crashing waves and mock-tails (because good Mormon girls don't drink)

#blindman finds #pokemon before his #daughter...so much for #pokemongo #technology

Day 2: The helping hound

Ahh that feeling you get when you are a woman and its that time of night to take off that bra...settle into drinking a warm cuppa and writing your nightly blog post...ahhhh (I can almost hear a Holmer Simpson sigh) 
So here we go....The things you don't think about as a sighted person...I just want to put my hand up to say I am the worst person for blind man to be married to. I get my lefts and rights mixed up, I often forget to give directions and sometimes can't even think of the words to say to give the right directions. Luckily my blindman has had 25 years of me giving him bad directions that when I say go left he automatically turns right. When I say can you pick up that thingo from next to the sink 95% of the time Deano knows what the thingo is and which sink to go to. 
Today when we got out of the car Deano walked around the car to go into the shops and went to the wrong side of the car. This is a common occurrence for us so it does not seem to faze me until I am in a bit of a rush. A friend of ours was also getting out of the car and noticed that my man was going in the wrong direction. She commented..."Dean you need a guide dog" Quickly my smart mouthed husband quipped back..."I don't need one...I have my golden retriever right here!" (Pointing to me) Don't quite know how I feel about that comment but he said it in a whimsical manner with a smile and a wink so I am guessing he doesn't consider me as his pet dog!!!  
My friend responded that at least a guide dog will not spend all the money...to which my man laughed and said "but I would have to buy it doggy treats".
Having a guide dog is something we have never seriously considered. Many people have asked us over the years when we were going to apply for one but seriously these dogs while they are a gift for some for others they are a lot of work. Dean and I have 4 daughters, whom, when little were enough work for a mother and a blind father to go a little loopy. 
Try throwing a highly trained dog into the mix, one where the girls could never cuddle or chase while he had his working harness on, a dog that can only eat at certain times, a canine that needed to be walked on the harness for up to 5klms per day to keep his skill set up and a dog that sheds hair everyday was not a situation that we thought would be conducive to either the animal or our family. We just decided that a guide dog would be ruined by our family so we have left that gift to other worthy people who need a trusty companion. 
Trust me when I say we do love animals and currently we have a beautiful rescue dog named Bruce. Along the way we have had several dogs, Moses who ran away when he found a girl friend at a house nearby, Cooper aka Super cooper the flying dog who had to be re-homed as he would jump our six foot fence in a single bound and Jackson who was a also rescue dog with a huge underbite.Our children have learned loads by looking after these beautiful creatures and we have many fond memories of each of our pets that have past.  
Perhaps one day when I no longer able to assist my blindman we might consider a guide dog. But for now the only harness I have is my bra! So grateful I can let these puppies loose at night and hubby can't see how they have drooped over the years! Blessings all round I say! 

The Challenge 60 posts in 60 days

A crazy new adventure in our life has taken over our existence  over the past 8 weeks. My blindman and I have decided to delve into the unknown world of network marketing, which we would never ever considered until a responsible energy provider decided to launch here in Australia. It gets all the environmental ticks from my greenie blindman so we decided to go for it! Last night I challenged myself to step way out of my comfort zone and go to a networking event at the Story Bridge Hotel. Now I love to chit chat but never ever have I done "speed networking". I can't tell you how many people I met at this event it was crazy, everyone trying to tell "their story" voices getting louder and louder until at one stage I was lip reading because I could not hear what the person in front of me was saying...crazy. 

So we had to tell our story in 30 seconds...mine went a little like this..."My passion is my husband. We have been married for 25 years, he has been blind since birth. I helped him through two degrees, first being environmental science, the second business. He was the first blind man along with his blind brother to cycle across Australia. He was made redundant in the Global Financial Crisis and as a result used his redundancy money to create a fun activity for the child care sector with pedal go karts. Today we run the largest pedal go kart hire company in Australia. We are also in pre-launch stages of a new responsible energy provider coming here to Australia." Then I took a deep breath and listened to the persons response and their story...so many amazing stories. 

All were entrepreneurs, some were more interesting to me than others...there was the man that had a farting dog so he decided to develop a new type of wholesome dog treats, there was a lady who was involved in outsourcing labour from overseas, there were content finders, coaches of every kind from business, life to mental illness recovery coaches, photographers, make up artists, electricians, clothing designers and accountants with a twist! 

There was one woman in particular that stood out to me....her name is Becca Saunders and she left a job she hated and moved to Australia from the UK with $500 in her wallet. Now she runs a highly successful digital marketing company called The Delicatessen in Sydney. She and I hit it off. Becca was the one person who made me feel comfortable in these awkward surrounds. We talked about our lives and she was fascinated by what I consider the mundane existence that my husband and I lead...encouraging me to get back to blogging daily. She said "people want to know your ordinary stuff...like how does a blindman pour a glass of water without it spilling?" 

So apparently that stuff that makes up our everyday life is fascinating to most of the rest of the world. Assumptions such as my house must be emasculate so my blindman can navigate around were just one of many topics of discussion...because of course if anyone knows me...they know I am not the best house keeper  so no my house is just as unkept as the next person...I have just learnt not to sweat the small stuff over time and if Deano runs into, walks over, treads on my stuff and it gets wrecked its part of life! At the same time if he trips into the washing basket he has become the most agile person on earth. He always catches himself before he falls and rarely has bad injuries to complain about, due to my messy house that is! 

So with Becca's encouragement I will continue to write my blog. This crazy and zany woman threw down the gauntlet and challenged me to write a blog for 60 days...that's 60 chapters of giggles about celebrating opportunities to learn and share with others about our abnormal, normal life.

...btw my blindman puts his index finger into the top lip of the glass to feel the water reach the top to indicate to stop pouring...you just want to hope that he has not picked his nose with that finger before he offers you a drink! (Just kidding!)

 The Deli Agency

A showreel from the Deli Agency...Becca's baby! She is amazing!

5 minutes of fame continues on TV

To our utter surprise as we were taking families, and tourists for rides on the Gold Coast yesterday a news crew shows up and asks us for an interview. That is when we found out that Deano had been in the paper that day. It was a shock to us but it was pleasant...Why didn't they give me a heads up...at least I could have been in better shape or had some make up on or my hair done...but that's life isn't it...right when you are not expecting it something surprises you. This was defenatly a surprise and a delight for Deano
http://www.nbnnews.com.au/2015/12/20/blind-bike-guide-inspires-holidaymakers/

Blind Man Hits the headlines today

I am just so excited today...a newspaper article from the Gold Coast Bulletin was printed about Deano today.
http://m.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/blind-man-loves-nothing-more-than-jumping-in-one-of-his-pedal-cars/story-fnj90t7b-1227642213510

Love this article to bits....(except they got his name wrong)

Life is sweet and so are little girls

Life was so much easier when my girls were little. I was speaking to an old friend today that I just happened to bump into at church. She shared with me the dilemma she had been through with her teenage children. I could totally understand her pain as our family goes through trials of its own. When the girls where little they were so cute with the way they looked after their Dad. Very quickly they learned that their Dad could not see everything they were up to. Child number three was especially the most cluie in this regard.

Child number three was born with the after effects of me having undetected gestational diabetes. At only a few hours old she was having seizures due to her blood glucose levels plummeting. Needless to say she had grown up to have a very sweet tooth.

This child was also a very good climber and if there were any treats in the house she would sniff them out no matter where they were hidden. She would climb the chest of draws, the pantry shelves or the door jamb to reach any height and nab herself a sweet reward. Not much has changed in her 16 years.

Needless to say this child had become an expert in hiding any evidence…wrappers were found in her pillow case, tucked under the springs of her bunk bed, or even behind the s bend in the toilet. On one occasion where I had found that some birthday sweets were missing in the cupboard I asked Dean to sort it out as I prepared for the evening meal.

Off he went doing the dutiful Dad thing. At the time child number three was only 18 month old. We knew that she had been in the cupboard because all the tell-tale signs were evident, similar to that of a mouse making a mess in your cupboard but instead of filthy mouse droppings and tiny corners of packets chewed open we found the pantry door left wide open, dining chair propped in front of the open door and several packets of cereal spilt all over the floor with a scattering of sweet wrappers on top.

Deano calling out her name he did three laps of the house not being able to track her down. The fourth time I silently followed behind him. To my utter amazement this sneaky cheeky little girl had worked out how to avoid being caught by her blind father. With her back up against the wall and hands flat against the plaster, head tilted so one side of her face was pressed up to the hard gyprock, like a jewellery thief that you see in the movies she was allowing her father to walk right past her so that she could not get caught. She has even worked out that if she used the door jamb that lead to the corner of the room she would have less chance of being sprung. Oh how children learn so quickly! To this day we marvel at her ability to work this trick out at such a young age and how smart she was to notice that her dad was not able to see her in different situations such as different light aspects of a room.

Although this does not seem like an earth shattering event it is just one of those little memories we have of rearing our girls and just a little extra obstacle in parenthood we never thought that we would have to face. Now days the obstacles seem so much bigger and more frightening but not caused by their father being blind but caused by a world that is blinding choices for youth. Never before has the internet been so accessible to our youth and I feel that some young people just don’t see the real world beyond the screen. I know that Deano would die to see the real world as I do, and perhaps one day he will, maybe not in this life time but in the next. My only wish is that our children don’t take their life and sight for granted and live life every day with a grateful heart and see in themselves what potential they have to make a difference for good in this world.

Toilet Humour

People often tell me that they just don’t believe me when I tell them that Deano is blind. “But He copes so well…or how can He do so much?” Are both common comments that if I had a dollar for every time I have heard them I would be very rich indeed!

But just as I shared a very embarrassing moment in my last post Dean has had some doozies that have been caused by him faking being able to see. One in particular sticks out in my mind. We were on a family holiday with our new camper trailer hooked up to the tow bar. We had taken the coast road from Lismore to the Gold Coast on what seemed like a never ending stretch of coastal road with no views for miles other than bush scrub out the right window and sclerophyll sand dunes through the left and a ribbon of hot steamy road ahead.

With the fuel meter tipping down low I pulled into a lone service station with the remainder of what seemed like every holidaying family in the world all queuing to fill their thirsty tanks. The day was hotter than an outback lizard under carriage and I wasn’t the best truckie at the time with only a few hours of experience towing a trailer behind the car. I managed to get the car and trailer into the line-up for the outside petrol pump…you know it…the one closet to the road, so that I didn’t have to do any tricky turns or even more embarrassing, unhook the trailer and do the walk of shame in order not to hit anything in my towing path. In our little car with the air-conditioning on full ball I hear a little voice from the back seat…”I need to do a wee wee Mummy” This was a darling number 3 daughter who was 18 months old and had just graduated into big girls pants.

Alarm bells rang in my head…what is a woman to do…I am not a miracle queen…I can’t get out of the petrol pump line…and I can’t let my little toddler down…she relied on me as did all the other occupants of the car and those in the line behind me.

I turned and faced my husband who was blissfully unaware of my dilemma listening to the radio as we crept along in the line. Until now having three daughters toilet duty was a mummy thing, especially when we were out and about, you hardly ever see a man taking their daughter to the male toilet do you? What else could I do? I looked at him and said in a stern and a little stressed voice…”Well it’s your turn I just can’t do it all. Can you please take child number three to the toilet in the petrol station. Child number one (who was 5 at the time) can lead you to the door of the bathroom and you will have to find your way to a toilet from there.” Without a choice my blind husband unlocked the girls out of their car seats and walked with child number three over his shoulder and child number 1 holding his hand and guiding him to the bathroom.

Meanwhile it was my time to fill up the car at the petrol bowser. I got out of the car and started the flow into the tank. Clunk. The tank indicated it was full so I took child number 2 out of the car and paid for the petrol and came back to my car to find that the toilet mission had a successful outcome for child number 3….but not so much for my poor husband who had put the girls back in their car seats and was now almost lying on the floor in the front seat of the car, his body slouched down with head leaning almost on my lap and his hand over his face. “Can we just get out of here?” He demanded in an impatient manner. I looked at him bewildered. I wondered what had happened, had he robbed the store, had one of the kids played in toilet water…my mind boggled.

“Can we just GO PLEASE!!!?” With that I put my pedal to the metal and we hit the road…but as I drove I was compelled to inquire what had gotten his goat? He started to compose himself and as he did he turned his head in my direction and firmly said to me “Don’t you ever ask me to take the girls to the toilet ever again, I have never been so embarrassed in all my life.”

What could possibly go so wrong, I was so perplexed at his state…”What went down Babe?”

His response is one I will never forget “When child number one led me to the male bathroom I felt around for the door the cubical. With my hand out-stretched to try and feel the hard door but instead of a cold hard feeling my fingertips brushed up against a warm soft bum! You see there were no cubical doors and I just touched a man up on his BOTTOM while he was standing in front of the toilet trying to pee”

“What happened next Hun?” was my immediate response, as I tried to hold back the roar of laughter that was welling up inside me,  just so he could manage to get the rest of the story out before I completely fell apart in fits of giggles.

“All I heard was the man pulling up his pants, and  zipping up his fly, he turned around and said “Mate you put me off!” Not sure what He was thinking cause he did not know I was blind,  as I didn’t have a cane,  and I was holding a little girl over my shoulder. I think that was the only reason he did not job me one!”

From that moment I laughed all the way to the Gold Coast, I giggled on and off through the evening and I think I laughed even in my sleep. No I wasn’t laughing at Deano…just the absurdity of the whole situation. It has been one of those stories that we tell dinner guests who ask Dean how much he can see…Its one of the stories that we both laugh about today.

We managed to enjoy the rest of our camping trip and yes I did all of the toileting trips from then on in even with our daughter number four.

We did however sell that camper trailer after that holiday as we knew that we never wanted to have to be stuck at that petrol station ever again!