Day 14: Fake It Till You Make It

Sometimes life throws us a stick of hilarity like no other...you can chase it like a dog or you can cower away with embarrassment. I prefer to ignore the latter response and embrace all hilarious situations as a woman who wears it as a badge of honour. 

As a mother of four daughters I like to pride myself on teaching my young women about sun safety, encouraging my girls to get a tan that's sprayed on rather than baking in like a roast chook, leaving their skin as if they were a leathery chiko roll by the time they are in their 40's. (Not to mention the risk of skin cancer) During the summer months the spray tan tent is permanently erected in the shed where the girls take turns in spraying each other to get that sun kissed glow that every white Aussie teenage girl wished she was born with. They also use a cream to help the tan stay even as their dead skin cells come away during each shower post tanning session. 

So what's the point of telling you my daughters beauty routines I hear you ask! (This is where my story gets good!) 

Every night my kindly blindman is sweet enough to rub moisturising cream into my feet. One Saturday night we got home quite late. We went to bed and as usual my husband offered to rub cream into my hoofs to keep them moist and supple. Early Sunday morning Dean awoke and went to a morning church council meeting. I rolled out of bed at 8.15am and with church starting at 9am I knew that if I didn't get a wriggle on I would certainly be late. As I threw back the cosy bed linen I quickly noticed something most horrifying about my feet. Yes, you guessed it! One of my lovely daughters had decided she would apply her fake tan in our room while we were out on our blind date! Our room has a full length mirror so it is often the room the girls congregate in to get ready when they're going out. It's the room they use to check on their little figures to see if they're looking their best and now I suppose it was the room they used to rub the streaks out of their false skin tones. 

So as I hazelly gazed down at my tootsies, my feet had changed to the most unusual colour of Cheetos cheese balls. The cream was not just on my toes, my husband doing such a thorough massage, left self- tan marks half way up my shins. My bottom half now the colour of Bondi Bronze in the middle of the hottest Aussie summer, you know that orange chocolate colour of a Darrel Lea Jaffas, except it smelt like the bottom of a chemist's shop garbage bin, with the wreak of chemicals bad enough to melt a plastic rose. 

Startled by the scene before my eyes, my white sheets looked like someone had been murdered down the foot of the bed. I leapt out of bed and jumped into the shower trying to recover this awkward situation. Perhaps I could scrub it off...was my only thought to salvage the morning...but alas, that would be moisturiser had stained my skin to the very core! What to do? What to do? My brain kept ticking...stockings...lets do this!
Yes that would've been the best answer but, no, I didn't have one pair without a ladder! DARN!

Last chance...my winter knee high boots! Yes, it was the middle of summer, yes,  this was crazy but...I could salvage the situation with a fringe jacket, going the Tamworth Country Music look.
Arriving at church on the door knocker of 9am, I was greeted with a grin by one of the young men at the door. He said to me, "Hey, has Dean got something wrong with him?" Baffled I peered at him with a puzzled look thinking his question was in some way related to my lateness or to my crazy boot in summer country attire.
Kicking it Country Style 

Boots to cover my cheetoes

I answered "He was okay when he got up and got a ride to church this morning. We did have a late night though. Why do you ask?" The response sent me into hysteria...(just to put you in the picture Dean was in the Bishopric at the time. He was sitting on the stand when I arrived and the meeting had just started.)
"Well, you see when Dean came to shake my hand his hands looked odd! They were brown like he had some sort of treatment on his skin. I thought he might have a skin condition as well as being blind?" 
I couldn't contain myself, standing out in the hallway I laughed so hard that they had to shut the doors to the chapel to stop my heckling noise carrying into the reverent space.  As I looked at the young man with tears of laughter in my eyes and giggles welling up under my inner chest, I removed one of my boots and asked him ( in snickers of bemusement) "Did his hands look like this?" His eyes opened wide with a baffled look. "Ah ha yep that looks the same" 

At this point I wondered what he must be thinking but because of my snorting laughter he got the gist that Dean's health was just fine. This is where Dean was able to teach this young man a valuable lesson or may be two valuable lessons.  1. Always love your wife and rub her feet at night because no matter what she will love you back. 2.Always read the label before applying! 
And perhaps lesson number 3 was given by me...always learn to laugh at yourself, don't take yourself too seriously because you never know a blind person with cheese ball hands might sweep you off your feet and if your too serious about stuff you might just miss enjoying these simple funny memories along the way! 

Day 13: Follow the Blind Guy

The lessons we learn in life mostly are given to us without asking for them. Without realising it my blind man has been teaching our children from the day they were born how to serve others.

 When we brought my first baby home. Dean was a hands on dad. After having an emergency Caesar I was still very much in pain to get up out of bed.  It was as if a wilder  beast had taken a chunk out of my abdomen and I had been left to die as the doctors released from hospital just 72 hours after this Bub was delivered. Feeling like I was hit by a bus and was undergoing 2 hourly torture chamber treatment every time this little infant latched onto my sore swollen breasts to feed I would cry out in pain. To say I was a natural mother would have been a gross overstatement. I found the whole process difficult and depressing, post natal depression was a real issue I had deal with. Everything about child birth and the following few moths with our new addition to our little family was certainly not joyous to me. 

#Blindman looking a little weary caring for his tribe of 4 daughters

During this period my blind husband came into his own. He was the one who got up every two hours. Dean, in often temperature going into minus degrees in the cold of the north west of the NSW winter would check on our new little bubba. Yes this man who could not see learnt how to change a wriggling babies nappy, he managed to swaddle a crying  baby and to dress and bath a baby that had projectile discharged all over the place (He now says he chooses not to remember these things) Going from comments of other couples I believe my man was coping with being a new Dad as well as any of the best. We did quickly learn though that cloth nappies and pins were not the best option when he stuck himself with the pin which was a great warning for us to switch this up and buy the snaps that won't risk hurting the newborn. 

With each daughter he was my champion. By the time we had our fourth daughter all via Caesarian section Deano was able to sweet talk the nursing staff around into letting him stay in a lazy boy chair beside my bed, just for the first night so he could help me with showering and help this woman who had been cut in half for the fourth time, with feeding, getting our little baby out of the crib and bringing her to me for tender kisses and cuddles. It really was a loving experience, that had he not been blind I think would have never happened. Dean explained to the nurses that he could not drive home on his own so they agreed to leaving him there to help me. Such a blessing. 

Safe delivery of our fourth daughter

Talking to a friend about her experience falling pregnant in her 40's after having three children in her 20's she asked me would I consider having children now at this age? The answer was of course- hell no! I already have enough mouths to feed.  

Now our oldest had made it to the ripe old age of 21 and she is just like her Dad. When she sees someone who is in need our girl makes her self available to render service. Although our girls are far from perfect we are proud that in this one thing we've got it right. Teaching them to give service through his loving care in-spite of his physical challenges has inspired us to be better people and that's a lesson we are reminded of daily.  

Day 12: Pole Dancing

Today marks the start of the fete season which means its all hands on deck for this carni family. Yes we are playing with the big boys in the carnival arena lol...the little pedal go karts up against the dodgem cars and the cobra ride, which we like to call the vomitron as numerous times we have witnessed the regurgitation of the odd dagwood dog, fairy floss mixed with gastric juices flushed out with a can of coke. Yuck! (Sorry if you are reading this over the breakfast table)These seriously dirty men (they look like they have slept on the street for a year due to the grease and filth all over their clothes from setting up this dusty ride equipment) stand and watch our clean cut family roll out the track with amused faces. Three young women(myself included) and a blind man untangling the giant 10x20 metre track. We have not worked out yet, in 5 years, how to pack the darn thing away with out tangling the figure 8 so next time it's easy to set up...first world problems I know! But surely it would be easier to pack away had Dean been able to see as we rolled it all up. Hey these small inconveniences don't get this man or his family down. It's just life and it's normal to us. It does crest a very entertaining sight for these fellas in side show ally. 
Go Kart Wild The Blindmans Business

The giant inflatable pedal go kart wild track

Deano packing up the track in the dark

On our way to the event we received an interesting phone call from Deano's brother who is also blind. Lorin who is an accomplished musician in his own right had been reading my blog and was amused at some of the recollections and every day incidences I have captured in writing. Lorin tours Australia and internationally with his guitar playing prowess and captivates audiences all over the world with his ability to play the instrument as good as any sighted man. Considering he can't read music his passion for the arts has lead him to speak to millions of people worldwide and play for world leaders in the industry, banking, religious, and education and other corporate sectors that have been inspired by his story. 
Lorin playing Sailing North For Balcony TV


For Lorin his path has been similar to Dean's in that he chose when he was a teenager what his life was going to be like. Both men when they were young decided they were not going to be victims of the system. These men were a product of the upbringing of their parents who never let anything stop them from accomplishing their dreams and both men never said no. 
Lorin Nicholson Motivation Speaker

"It's interesting" Lorin  commented that some people decide that they can't do things and then of course it doesn't happen. Life doesn't change for people with this mindset. It's not all about the dream either, it's about taking action massive action and making a plan always helps you create a path of discovery for yourself. With these three forces in play you are unstoppable." 

As the day went on I pondered on Lorin's words about having an attitude of success. But I also reflected on one other trait that i feel is super important. What comes into mind when you think of the word Focus? Particularly if you say that word to a visually impaired person. I have said it before in previous posts and I will say it again "where your focus goes energy flows". 

My blind man has always had the strange ability walk into street poles. It can be the only lamp post in the street and he will manage to walk into it. Even if I park right out of the way of a of those hard metal  or sometimes lopped wood trees holding up the wires for our electricity, or walk on the opposite side of the road to the poles, the moment he starts making his move it's as if these poles grow legs and jump out in front of him. I used to think it was Murphy's law...you know the law that states that if it's going to happen it is typical that it will happen to you...well that's how I would see this odd occurrence of Dean walking into poles...just Murphy's Law happening. But I now know it deeper than that. Because Deano has been visually impaired since birth he admitted to me recently that he feared walking into these hard objects on the street. So therefore doesn't it make sense if he is focusing on his fear as we go out for a stroll he will find what he fears the most...usually with his head! Ouch!  

The lesson I have come to learn from these men is that they have the amazing ability to teach us lessons in so many ways . Through the blessing of not being able to see, whether you see that as a blessing or not, I have been taught the power of resilience, determination, the power of having a positive outlook and a plan that's put into action and that if I  focus on what I want, not what I fear I can do anything. Oh! One more thing I need make sure I have a hard head when I do make a mistake and walk into a pole! Yes these are truly intense thoughts but I like to look at life as the great John Bonjovi one of my favourite musicians sang "It's my life, it's now or never" and I shouldn't waist a minute more, because  "I just want to live while I'm alive"
It's my Life Bon Jovi

Day 11: The Trophy Truckie Wife

A few months back I made a new friend named Angela. This is a woman who knows what she wants and goes for it. Angela challenges my fears, she reads me like a book and without reading my blog, this woman knew from just a few short conversations, that I have issues of being afraid to take risks, that I like to be in control and taking the drivers seat. I guess with over 25 years in the drivers seat that is inevitable. 

The Blindman and His blond Chauffeur, at a truck stop on our way to Sydney

Being blind my husband has had to endure riding in the passenger seat all of his life. You know most people pay to have the privilege of having a good looking chauffeur take them where ever they want to go. Lucky for my man, I like to be in the drivers seat. When I met Deano I had my licence for just one day. I passed my provisional driving test the day before I met him, so I was a ready made taxi driver from day one. 

While we dated we had the use of my mothers Lite Ace van. I wasn't the coolest cat in the coolest car but it did fit my blind mans bike in the boot and so I would often drive him home after I had finished school. At times I would find a little note he had literally scratched down on a pad leaving me love letters under the windscreen wipers. At the time I don't think I really considered them to me overly romantic...because they were always written in thick black texta, they wouldn't say too much. They were often just little thoughtful messages like "I missed you today" or "meet me at home" or "I love you" The fact that my blind man took the time to write words on paper just for me, considering he could not quite make out the letter he was writing, made them special. Looking back now i would say these little slips of paper were utterly charming. I guess you could say he was writing a licence to drive my heart in his direction.

After we got married we didn't have the use of my mothers car. For almost all of the first year we biked and walked everywhere and often I silently prayed that somehow we would get our first car that we owned ourselves. Public transport was not an option where we lived so we really were appreciative when a $2500 cheque  made out to me was found in a love letter sent from a distant relative who could see us struggling. Oh what a blessing our first car was to us. A white itty bitty two door 1977 Honda Civic hatch back. I guess it wasn't the muscle car Deano was hoping for, one with grunt and v eight turbo power engine, the type of rumbling sound that is a little deafening, the type that shakes the earth, which you can feel under your feet and in the air as it speeds of into the distance. Nope $2500 was not going to be enough for that! I am forever thankful for that donation to help us,  it was totally unsolicited and given in love. "What if life was working for you not happening to you" Anthony Robbins.  One day when we are in that same position we will pay that blessing forward and bless one young couple with enough money to buy their first car. 

Our First Car 1977 2 Door White Honda Civic Hatch

Over the 25 years of driving "Mr Daisy" my skill set has improved out of site. We run a pedal go kart hire business And now I drive a very masculine black shiny Aussie ute (made in Japan, because sadly there are no ute manufacturing companies left here in Australia) I tow a 6 metre 2.5 tonne trailer, black and shiny, a beast of a rig really. My blind man sits proudly in the passenger seat as he listens to the Diesel engine crank away and sometimes winces as he hear the odd crunch of the gears from my end. He calls me his Truckie and loves to hear other men comment to him how well I can back that rig up the driveway as they stand and watch ready to offer assistance to a blond house wife who they predict will have no idea how to drive such a monstrosity especially in reverse. Yes I am also proud of my driving skills too. You know when life throws you lemons you make lemonade. This blind man has a delivery company, (unbelievable right) and this Blindmans wife has had the opportunity to learn a skill that a whole lot of other women would not have ever even consider. 
Go Kart Wild The Blindman and The Blindmans Wife Pedal Go Kart Business

Back to the reason I started this blog and write this particular post. Over the past 25 years I have given a measure of control to the risks I have been prepared to take. I have not been prepared to do the wild things that I and my husband have dreamed about...yes our life is unusual but not in a wild adventurous way. We have dreamed of traveling to far flung regions of the world, being missionaries to help serve people in third world countries and to share our passion of life with others globally. Publicly I am driving our dream through this blog, because then I will make this a reality. Angela gave me a gift when she told me to "let go" and "get over your fear" and for this I will be forever thankful that we met, truly she is a forever friend. Now Deano and I are the co-pilots of this dream, building residual income together so we can get to the planned destination sooner than we had hoped. This is a magnificent new mindset of which both my blindman and myself are driving together and who knows it might in the end get Deano that v8 rumbling engined vehicle,he has always dreamed about as a bonus! 

The Blindman and the Blindmans wife Rig

Day 10 : Shades of Grey

It's on the days you least expect it that the wind knocks you right off your feet. I recall a time when we went camping with our three little girls. We loved the area we were camping in so much we decided to make an offer on a house in the valley. 

Camped high up in the mountain mobile phone coverage was not great. Dean was off down the way looking for wood for the fire and I had my number two child in the tent with me. I could hear the other two little ones playing outside the tent when my bank manager called me on the phone. 
The tent was the only place I could get reception. After talking for a couple of minutes it became very quiet just outside the tent. 

You know what they say when children are quiet they are up to something...
These two little ones, a five year old and my 2 year old were gone. My heart sank. We were camped at the prese pis of the mountain. The walking trails had sheer drop off points all around. I called out there names and no one answered. I was like a wind up toy getting more and more frantic as the minutes went on. My blindman managed to make his way back to the tent hearing me calling out to our girls. What a predicament I was in. One sighted parent and one who could not go looking for them in the bush if he tried. I asked fellow campers if they had seen them. Others who were total strangers within our camping circle decided that they would start searching down the trails. Quickly the word got around that there were two little girls lost in the bush. I felt panic stricken, I wanted to cry, I wanted to be sick and I all I could do was to stay put and wait. Petrifying fear came over me. The ranger asked me a few questions, then he radioed to another ranger on one of the trails where the sheer drop offs were. It was about 20 minutes at that point since I last heard the children playing outside the tent. 

Finally some treckers were returning from a hike and they said they had spotted my two girls, about 1lkm down the trail. It hadn't occurred to the treckers that there was anything a mis because they were hiking with two adults and another child. The kind people turned on their heals and ran down the track to find the happy hiking party. 

For one brief moment relief came over me but that was short lived. While I sat there waiting for them to return all sorts of thoughts went through my mind. Who were the people they were with? Were the people good people or bad? What were their intentions with my girls? How could I have been so stupid to leave my girls playing outside the tent. I hope they come back uninjured. What if the treckers can't find them now. I paced around the tent waiting, waiting, waiting. For a moment it felt like time had stopped and stood still, until finally my five year old apeared from between the scrub with a big grin on her face...the two year old was being carried in the arms of one of the tracking rescuers. I was overcome by a mix of emotions, relief being they were back safe, joy that they were back, anger that they had gone hiking in the first place with out their parents, confusion as to why they decided to follow strangers down the mountain...so may emotions, which one do I pick as an appropriate response. 

Our Trio of Happy Campers 

I think this was a practice run in life of how to respond to my girls. This disappearing episode only happened once but there have been many times I have felt these same emotions. With four teenage daughters this blind man and I have had many an occasion where life seems to be going along nicely and then one of them will do something so stupid that you think their brain and heart are totally not connected. Sometimes it's not just one of them making decisions that concern us, some times we get hit with a double and a triple whammy, all in the one day, one afternoon or sometimes with the one 1 minute. 

No wonder with these roller coaster of emotions parents literally go grey overnight... I see now why by the time people are in their fifties their hair looks white, and frown lines appear over their brows...(I'm ready for Botox now) these are all parents of children who have become teenagers. If I was a drinker I would be an alcoholic. It's no wonder people check into wellness retreats or like us sign up for Anthony Robbins programs to help keep our emotions in check. Other wise I would be put in a mental home wrapped in a straight jacket rocking back and forth on the edge of my bed. 

I have a good friend name Julie and I hadn't seen her for many years because we lived far apart. I bumped into her at church and she being a trained social worker looked at my warn out face and reminded me that teens are crazy. It's not parents who are crazy it's their misfiring brained children. She placed her hands each side of my face and told me not to worry. Then left me with a loving bear hug and reminded me that you just gotta love them through it and try to mitigate any major damage they can do to themselves during their crazy time.

Tony Robbins and our church both taught me just to love...so now when the moon is full, or when the house is high on emotion I channel my inner zen. Tell them all, I love them, and wait for the crazies in them to die down. We still don't know if this is great parenting but the blindman and his wife have got to weather this storm just for another ten years or so. Let's see how grey our hair has turned by then hey! 

Day 9: Is your Dream Big Enough?

When I first met Dean he had less than 10% eye vision. Nope that's not much but it was enough to read his text books and computer screen via a two inch thick magnifying glass. It was a long and tedious task for him to read a section of his text and then type it into his computer and then try and read what he had written via this method. For me it was as if I had gone back in time and I was watching the ancient Egyptian scribes tap out a scene of hieroglyphics on the side of a tomb, it was such an arduous task to behold. Yes, my blind man completed an environmental science degree in our first 3 years of marriage. 

Interesting to some he travel to North Queensland with his university group learning about landscapes, animals, sea life and habitats. When he came back home it was as though I was sleeping next to David Attenborough as he was full of animal facts and stories that he shared about the wildlife he had encountered. He camped in the Northern NSW hinterland to trap native animals and tag and release them, taking data and reporting the data to the university. Like a navy seal he dived to the bottom of the water storage dam taking water samples at different levels and wrote reports on his findings. So many incredible experiences my blind man participated in with his utter ability to go beyond what people would consider him to not even consider.

In Dean's final year of his science degree he wrote and published a report on the effects of sea level rise on coastal urban environments. This young man had me amazed at his ability to use all of his other senses  to conquer any fear that may have stopped others even fully sighted people from achieving. Deano has vision and his vision is in the form of a dream that he will achieve. Dean makes dreams his reality. 
I have heard them say if you can visualise it you can have it. Where your focus goes energy flows and this has been true for this blind man with huge vision.

Deano Graduating his First Degree in 1994 

It was around ten years after his first degree  that Deano decided he would go back to university. There was a  huge change in teaching and learning styles over that ten years. It was during this time the Internet was produced and there were some major advances in technology assisting the blind to know what was on the computer screen. This is where we were first introduced to a programs called jaws. The program read nearly everything Dean research on the computer. However this technical advancement was not available for the first 2 years of his second round of studying so I had the task of reading to my blind man. 

The Blindman and his girls on his graduation day

As Deano had some residual vision, the more difficult subject matter, like business maths and statistics, I was able to re-write on a white board large enough for him to read. It certainly was both a laborious and tedious process. Algebra was never a strong point but hey when I have ever used it since. Perhaps they make you do it to program the brain to think another way. How do you discuss what some of these symbols look like to a blind man? My description of the value pie went something like this "A soccer goal post with a bent cross bar on top" and the symbol for infinity is an "eight lying on its side." It felt like I was now the Egyptian scribe tapping away at the stone wall. All I can say is when we sat our exams the Blindman got a high distinction and the Blindmans wife got a distinction...I would have thought it would have been the other way around because I rewrote the text. Just goes to show that just because you can't see it certainly doesn't equate to not understanding. 

It still amazes me today that my man got right through high school never being able to see the black board. Only with the help of a good friend, Steven Viney, who read all the details to him that he could not see, was Deano able to complete his schooling years. My man always sings the praises of his mate who without such a sacrifice of service, he would never had made it through high school.

Our accounting lecturer said to me once"I don't see how Dean will use this information if he can't even see" I commented back to him " Don't underestimate this man. He can do anything I know I have seen it first hand" Others would have been insulted or even taken his words to heart but not us. The words felt like someone was laying down a challenge that we were set to prove him wrong. 

Today Deano does all the invoicing for our company, he manages our budget and negotiates deals. This blind man had a dream and he is living it. Now he has started to share his passion for life with others through a new network marketing venture. It's not something he would have ever tried before so we will see where this exciting path takes us. That's what life's all about isn't it. Challenging ourselves, growing in the face of adversity and helping others along the way.

Blindman Deano on his graduation day of his Business Accounting Degree 2009 

Day 8: Freedom for some

The magic of the white wand. 
When we were newlyweds Deano, my blind man, faked it. Never to accept that his blindness was going to define his opportunities in life, this young man had just enough vision to get around without the use of the long white stick that most other blind people use for mobility. "Nope it's old crusty people that use canes" I supposed he thought when he in his youthfulness. So as a young adult the man of my dreams could manoeuvre  himself across a room without seeming like he was blind. I guess it was the masculine side of him coming out. When a man feels masculine the most is when feel he feels freedom. A cane was not going to give him the freedom that he so desired... so he thought. 

Cute girls learning to use the can at an early age

                                                                 Cane helps blind girls
When we went out he would hold my hand, and I would tell him how many steps were In front of us before we had to step up or down the curb, how many stairs we had to climb and which direction to turn are these were just the tip of the iceberg of instructions I had to think about. Train travel to work was an interesting new experience once we moved to the city. New instructions quickly became part of my repertoire. Directions like where the edge of the train station platform was and describing to him how high to lift his leg onto the train or how wide to step out over the crack was so he did not fall through. So many instructions, I felt like my brain was doing to explode at times. He's not dead yet so I must be doing okay.

When we bushwalked it was always interesting, and as I have already said it in a previous post I'm not the best at giving directions so imagine going through a bush track and trying to describe the landscape one step at a time..Big rock here, tree branch over head, duck your head now, roots of a tree, there is a slippery looking spot on your next step, watch the puddle over there, oops I mean to your left (the puddle was probably on his right) and it goes on.for For the entirety of  what is meant to be a fun day-time-date turned out to be a direction giving marathon...there should be an olympic category for this challenge 

Deano was the age of 30 when his older brother Lorin who is also blind encouraged him to go to cane training. With both men being born with a small amount of eyesight that diminished over the years it took them a while to accept they finally needed more help.

That cane changed my life literally. It was meant to be an improvement for Dean, but, how can I put this without sounding kind of self-centred. That cane gave me freedom. I could finally walk without feeling the need of excusing my husband for tripping over someone's dog, or child, or asking for forgiveness from people when my hubby almost landed in their shopping trolley. I remember someone commenting to me once as we walked down the street late one night that my husband was clearly drunk as he stumbled up as stair case. Interesting considering Mormons don't drink Nope these type of comments were over because finally the outside world could see a blindman carrying a white cane (even though he felt he didn't need it) to the rest of the world needed it. 

Cane training
 Amazing technology is being developed to assist the blind

The cane really does not help him how others think it would. It's more of a warning signal to the general public that my my blindman in denial is on his way through...I swear in the shopping centre that cane is like Moses parting the Red Sea. It is the wand of magical of power, especially if you are in the Christmas rush with a army of hurrying shoppers wanting to get their last minute Christmas buying done is a snap. Yes there are some benefits of having a blind husband...pull out that cane with one flick of the wrist the crowd moves aside as I guide my husband to the best buys within the store. There's gotta be an upside to every trial in life, even if it's just a little moment. I grasp any positives to feel good about a situation that is considered by most as a difficult challenge in life. Yep in and out in half the time. 

I have joked with him in the past that He is my zombie apocalypse plan. That cane can be used to beat any one off...made from metal tubing in 4 sections it is light weight held together by an elastic string...I am sure it would make a really good oversized  numb chuck if he had to use it to defend his damsel in distress. 

Over the time my blindman has learnt to embrace the cane. It really has brought a whole new dimension to hiking. We not only use the cane but we also have a tent pole stretch between us. Me holding the end against my hip and And my guy holding also against the rod on his hip. That way Deano can feel my movements up and over rocks or down over uneven footings and use his cane to tap to find the edge of anything that might trip him underfoot. Now even though I still give him some directions there is also time to talk to each other about the beauty around us, hear the banking streams and listen to the whip birds down in the valley. It would have to be one of our most favourite dates of all time apart from tandem cycling that is...but that's another story. 
The cane has been a cymbal of freedom for me as much as it for Dean and I for one will be forever grateful to its inventor. 

Deano and the blindman's wife with our friends taking a selfie on one of our hiking adventures this year