Blog 33 November 9 2012 Service

Blog 33 November 9 2012

Service!

We get many opportunities to serve but very few rarely do, and those who do get little reconnection. As we come to this time of remembrances I reflect on those soldiers who gave their lives for us! With the end of world war two the second war that was to end all wars and of course all the other wars that followed those wars it seems it is a never ending war all for different reasons. As Canada officially closed it combat role in Afghanistan and the US out of Iraq and their mission coming to an end in Afghanistan the threat of veterans being forgotten is unlikely. Although as the veterans from world war two pass-away we have created a whole new generation to take their place.  The most amazing part of this is the lack of respect that is shown in schools, work places, and even homes. It is almost as if people believe that their freedom and safety is their right and not a gift that was paid for with lives and great sacrifice.  We remember the soldiers that served but we forget the sacrifices that families and friends pay when they loose that one they love. When we talk about service we are also talking about those families that gave so much for us.
I had a chance to speak this week at the University for a Class on diversity what it is like being student with a handy cap. It was a great talk since the other two people that were to speak with me could not make it. I was asked to speak for two hours (for those who know me that is easy part). I got to hear a lot of things that you would not get here in a 30min talk. I spoke about the sacrifice that the puppy raisers did so I could have great dogs. I spoke about how Lucky saved my life 2 times in 20mins from cars not paying attention. They asked about the training we did and the sacrifice my wife made for being home with our son for a month on her own! Having to trust that our son would close the front door when he left the house never mind locking it if he closed it we are happy. My close friends helping my wife out, and being there as well as driving her to visit me! I speak about my sisters, who visited me while I was there and making sure that I was ok and feeding me. I got to speak about Jagger and Lucky and my commitment to them and there’s to me. I got to speak about the dedication that my family and friends give me on non conditional bases.

At the of the talk of course the students were very happy and I had a lot of questions, the professor was very pleased and impressed that I could talk and keep their attention and answer all the questions she was very pleased. As I was packing up my things and getting ready to leave a young man probably in twenties came up and asked if he could shake my hand. As we shook hands he said thank you and thank you for talking about your military experiences. He further went on to say that he is in the reserves and will be heading to Afghanistan in a few weeks for a tour providing security.

I stop what I was doing and put my hand out and said “ I want to thank you for your sacrifice and your service” he was amazed that someone thanked him. I like to think that maybe somewhere down deep inside of him that he got some hope that if something happens to him that he could bounce back. There is a great line from the movie the Big Red one. During a patrol the section comes across a memorial dedicated to the Big Red One division! The soldier asks how they put this monument up so fast? The sergeant replies they didn’t! This monument is from world war 1.

The soldier replies “yah but all the names are the same” Yes said the sergeant the names are all the same but the dates is new”!         

Blog 32 October 11 2012

Blog 32 October 11 2012

Being Thankful!

October is always a special time for me. It reminds me of special time of when my family was together; my mom and brother were still with us. My other brother was flown in from BC he was in the military. I can’t say it was a happy period that we got together but as a family we came together!

In October 1978 at the age of fifteen I received a bone marrow transplant from my older brother. At a time when bone-marrow where new and cutting edge technique. There were not many doctors doing these procedures. The doctor who did my transplant had literally just got off the plane a couple of weeks earlier and was in Montreal to setup a Bone-marrow transplant department.  In 1978 the guidelines were strict in regards to donors. Unlike today where donors only have to be a parciule match to be considered a donor back then you almost had to be an exact match.

I am remember sitting with the doctor with all my family in the room and he asked if we had anymore relatives to test because we would need a lot of family to find a good match.

(just like back then and today God gave me many blessings), after all the testing of the immediate-family the doctor came back and broke the news to us that we did not have one donor but we had two donors! The other donor that could have given me the transplant was my sister. So thought was if it did not work the first time, we could do it again since there were two donors.

The rest of the siblings were matches for other vital nutrients that I would need after in the way of transfusions.

It was a long road before to get to the transplant stage and it was a longer road to recovery! I thank God for my family every day and friends.

Today is no exception I thank God for my wife and kids.  I thank him for my sister and brothers, I thank him for my friends who are also to me my family.

This October I also got to celebrate my first year wedding anniversary to a wonderful woman who loves me and takes care of me.

As I look back over these 34 years and recount everything that has gone on in my life, I can’t say it was easy but nothing in my life! I am thankful that I had another opportunity be the father I wanted to be! To be the husband I wanted to be! To be a better friend!

To be the man God intended me to be!

I am very thankful and to celebrate I went and had my eye adjusted today and it feels great, and Lucky is doing fantastic!

Look for more Adventures around the corner!  

Lucky has been working really hard these last couple of day's. This photo was just after his supper.      

Blog 31 Oct 1 2012 End of September !

Blog   31 Oct 1 2012

End of September !

The end of summer and the beginning of fall is upon us and what I mean by that is! That I start back to school on September 6 , Chris has started back to school already!  The College students are already backing to class, and although Chris is only auditing classes he is still considered a part of the college. We are very glad that the strikes have not affected him.

As I look back over the summer and wonder where all the time went? I was sitting in my office and recounting all things I wanted to do over the summer. I had to ask myself did accomplish what I wanted to do or like always did I over book my schedule.

As I reviewed my list of things I realized that I did the important things!

The things I did not get done , were I did not blog as much as I wanted, I did not travel as much as I wanted and I did not write a paper for the course for the class I took at the Prespiterina college. I did not train as hard as I wanted too.

The big thing I realized was I need to get an air conditioner for my home office! The summer we had was horrific for the heat. I  think a lot of what I did do, I trained with Lucky! The training with Lucky was the most important part of the summer. We really have come together as a team. I got him to the campus we found our classes, we traveled on the bus and I have be bringing him on the metro. I have to say out of all the training we did over the summer the metro was for me was the scariest! The metro in Montreal scares sight people half the time so imagine being visually impaired!  It is chaos at its best.

People running to catch the metro and people trying to get off, sometimes the announcement on what stop we are coming to does not work! I then have to count from where we are to where we are getting off. It gets very confusing most of the time people on the metro do not want to talk to you.

Most of all I have to apologize to everyone for not staying in touch through my Blog or by e-mail or calling.

I have been going through a transition the last two months. I had to go through  a medication transition. Some of t he medication I have been taking was starting to cause me some discomfort, most of all I have been sleeping a lot. I seen my doctor at the end of July we did some adjustments however the adjustments took some time to work in the mean time I have just been resting when I can and going to school and working Lucky and that has been just enough. We have traveling 3 days a week into Montreal for class. Our day starts at 5am and we are home by 4pm, by the end of the day Lucky and I are ready to rest.

The other transition I have been doing is taking Jaws classes. JAWS, is a total speaking program that allows you to type or read documents without looking at the screen. This has been a big adjustment going from sighted computer work to non sighted and just listening to what being said were you are in the document and then doing corrections without seeing the words.  

The hardest part is when I leave my screen on when I work in Jaws I see the outline of the document but I cannot see what is being typed. This is frustrating since with the little sight I have in my one eye I end up trying to see where I am, I end up just turning off the screen so I can work.

The other hardest part of the transition to Jaws remembering all the commands! The hard part is there is no mouse to use all the commands are done either through the number key pad or the key board.

So with that said I waited to this blog until I could do it using JAWS that’s right I finished the word part of the training and now it is just practice, practice.

The other thing about using Jaws is I have to use head phones to work not because it is hard to hear, but my wife and I share an office.

Sometimes when we are working together she will type some of the words or letters that are being said or she will turn to me and say I got to tell you what I just read so there goes my concentration on what I was trying to write. Then sometimes out of the blue the computer will say something without me in the room she then thinks someone else is the office with me.

This year has been an exciting and hard year but the most important part is we celebrate our one year wedding anniversary today we look forward to many more.

I will attach a picture of Lucky and Addison at the office of my academic adviser who is also visually impaired who also just got his guide dog.

I hope to be blogging more now since I am doing a lot better.        

Lucky & Addison at Concordia University

Lucky -& Addison at Concordia University

Taken on Sep 10 2012 

Blog 30 Summer of Training!

Blog 30 July 20 2012

Summer of Training!

It is coming to the end of July and the training never ends I have had Lucky 3 months and it feels like we have been together for year!  I been working with Lucky for the past few months a lot of it has been street work and, we have graduated to the social aspect of the training along with traveling on the bus in our area to different locations not far from where we live and I have been working him back home. Being a guide dog and being in crowds is a normal everyday occurrence,. The thing that we must understand, is that guide dogs are just that dogs and through each part of his training he is introduced to crowds this is a normal part of training.  In each part of that training the dog is always with the same people and for most part the environment is somewhat regular. In training we are instructed it is not advisable to bring your dog  into big social  environments until they get use to their new surroundings . So we now have started introducing Lucky to different social environments.  small gatherings  (dinners),   coffee time after church, restaurants and other small events, and he has been doing great I have his puppy walkers to thank for that, they did a great job! However nothing could prepare Lucky for the social environment that he will encounter with me!  Last week our youngest son graduated so like good parents we went to the ceremonies. This is normally a very quiet affair, as most of you all know that our son is Autistic. The graduation was held at his school which is a special needs school, and since I am visually impaired they gave me a seat right in the front-row. So I will set the picture we have Lucky in a down stay there about 80 kids jumping around with music and streamers flying  all over the place and he did not move a muscle he got up to change positions for comfort but other than that he did not move nor was he scared by all the noise.

I brought Lucky to Church one Sunday and we stood at the door and greeted people once he got settled he was great he did not move and people were so happy to see us there.

I got my biggest surprise when I had to go into Montreal with all the construction and people, (no riots! Thank God!) Lucky was fantastic and that’s when I realized that he was a city dog! The traffic can get quite busy were we live but it’s nothing like Montreal with Taxi drivers trying to run people over, and people not watching were they are walking and other drivers just trying to get through the pedestrians. I must not forget the Mayor of Montreal putting up all those orange cones for an obstacle course, (I must write him a thank you letter) with all that going on Lucky was great he kept his head down moved around obstacles, people open doors construction sites like he had done it a hundred times before. It was hard to believe that it was our first time down town, and it was not a quick trip, we probably down town for about 5hrs we did take a break for a meeting but that is a long time for a guide dog that is just getting to the know the area.

He did fantastic! Since then we have been back and forth to the campus down town walked around and just started to get familiar with the campus.

Next week we start traveling to west end of the island to the other campus.

I think he will do great and I can’t say enough about how much more pleasant it is to walk with a good guide dog than with a cane, the freedom that I feel is still overwhelming sometimes. I just hope the weather stays cooler so traveling is not so difficult!

Photos of Lucky!

Lucky Knackered after a day of work Down Town.

Portrait of Lucky



University Certificate of Pastoral Ministry May 2012 .



          

Blog 29 Fond Memories

Blog 29 June 29 2012

Fond Memories

These last few weeks of June have been really difficult, in the way of many fond memories of Jagger.  Lucky has this uncanny way of doing silly things when he is up to mischief.  He reminds me so much of Jagger that over the last few days my wife has caught me calling Lucky by Jagger’s name.  The way Lucky looks at you when you to talk to him, and the way he drops his tail and goes under the table, when he knows he is in trouble is so uncanny.

I was thinking a lot about him lately, today Jagger would have been 8 years old, and we would have been a team for 6 years in September.  I was talking with my wife about his first birthday we had with him!  She stopped by the baker and got him a cake, with Sponge Bob-Square-Pants doing the back stroke in the lake, (that is because Jagger loved the water) over the years we had different parties for him and we would make sure all our kids came over to have cake.  One year we had a BBQ and we told people not to feed him, but sometimes they would slip him something when I was not looking! lol

I went downtown today with my son, and it was Lucky’s first trip downtown to the city core, I stopped at the park were Jagger and I would stop so I could relieve him, or give him water or just give him a break before or after a long bus ride.  I stood in his favorite place where he liked to sniff and roll around in the grass, after I spent so much time brushing him out in the mornings (I swear some people would tell me that my dog needs to be brushed, I would tell them he was, until he went to the park) as a smile came over my face remembering how silly and goofy he was.  I decided that I should start introducing Lucky to this place because this is where we will be stopping in the future.  I never was so reminded of Jagger as when I took off  Lucky’s harness today.  I gave him a long leash and gave him the busy command and then you know what he did? Yup, sniffed the ground, put the side of his nose on the ground and then proceeded to roll around in the grass, and the first thing I said to him was “what are you doing you nut, I just finished brushing you” I think it was the boy coming to say hi to me and let me know that he is still with us, as long as we hold him in our hearts and thoughts and prayers!  

Blog 28 Where Is The Time Going?

Blog 28 June 13, 2012

Where Is The Time Going?

I cannot believe that we are already at the 13 of June!  It just seems that we got home from the school and now we are in the middle of June. It just seems that we had just got back from Ottawa and now we are in the middle of June. Things at home have been moving at a fast pace we had so much going on we have not had time to breath! I look at it as that every event we have is a training session for Lucky and I have to say he is getting better and better. It is hard for a new guide dog to be at social events and have to sit quietly and have everyone ignore you.

The end of May and the first week on of June, is when we finally finished training around our area and frankly I think Lucky and I are glad that is over with, especially the Lion part of it!lol

I guess it is time that I tell the story! When Lucky and I and the trainer were doing our practice routes we came across two statues outside of a restaurants. They were standing fully erect as we walked by Lucky must of thought they were two dogs or something because he started to get in a crouch position and growl at them (he wanted to show them he was boss, and he would not be scared) well the trainer and I thought this was so funny since it was the first time the trainer had ever seen this, for me it was the second time Jags did it as well. The funny thing is that I did not know how many statues of Lions were on the route that I walked. One night as my wife and I were driving around the area we counted 8 statues. The trainer suggested that one day when it was quite that I bring Lucky to meet the Lions. A couple of days later I did. I have to tell you it was a typical Retriever reaction. I took him out of harness as walked closer to the statue he crouched low to the grown and creped up on it not to scare it away and when he got close he started to growl. I started to touch the statue he stands up as if to say I knew it was not real I was testing you! With that said I thought well we will just go over to the other one and it will be ok! Wrong we went through the process all over again, it took a couple of times before he realized that they don’t move. I tell that story too many people and I always laugh when I tell it.

The month of May also found Lucky and I working on traffic, walking with a guide dog takes a certain amount of skill and a lot of practice. Guide dogs walk a very good line when they are facing traffic. This means the dog is on your left closes to the buildings and they walk you down the center of the sidewalk. Guide dogs walk different when the traffic is behind them, they walk in the center of the sidewalk and you are as far to the right closes to the buildings, this however creates a problem the handler is a little Huskier   than probably the normal handler. The dog does not like having traffic at it’s back, the other problem is that the handler will sometimes step on the back paws of the dog. The dog will correct its self by turning his front part of the body in front of the handler so in essence the dog is walking at a 45% angle this creates space for the handler to walk freely but changes the pace of the dog. I know it sounds complicated but think of it as both you and the dog are walking on a balance beam, one step to the right can walk you into a pole or hole or any object that may not be seen by the dog, one wrong step to the left you can step on the dog or worse trip over the dog and this creates a trust issue with the dog walking in tight spaces. I am happy to say that we have worked out those details of walking in tight spaces.

I have now moved on getting Lucky use to being in large functions. I brought him to a full church service last Sunday. I asked the minister if I could talk to the congregation, I asked them if could they could help me with the next part of Lecky’s training by ignoring him; this means when we go down stairs for coffee not to talk to him or try to pet him because I need him not to be distracted from his job and that is to guide me. The congregation was so happy that they could help in his training, they also want me to come back and great them at the door when they come in, and if Lucky is not sitting and being good they know that I will not come back and be the greater at the door. They want to be the church that has a blind guy and his dog as there greater.

Lucky and I were to start traveling downtown this week but, the Economic summit and all the other protesting going on in our fair city made me re-think that plan besides this week I was a little under the weather, I think it was the heat.

The following weeks are going to be interesting we are going to start some major route training on buses and walking down town, provided that the protesters behave. I have to get Lucky ready to travel by September, that’s when my next semester starts.

I will keep everyone posted.

        

Memories! Blog 27 2012

Blog 27 June 2, 2012

Memories!

This past week has been a very emotional and moving time. It has been a time of remembrance and grieving of our loss this time last year.

On May 26, 2011 we lost our great nephew Eric in that tragic incident in that Ottawa school. That took him in a auto shop incident.

My wife and I and of course Lucky spent the weekend at the memorial service finally having our opportunity to say goodbye.

Although my wife and I were at the hospital the night Eric past away, we never got the chance to say good bye at his funeral.

At the same time we were at the hospital that night with Eric, my guide dog Jagger was on his last legs.

He was pronounced two months earlier with a very aggressive blood cancer. His last job was guiding me to the hospital to sit with my sister and niece and her family.

We got Jagger in the car that night and we knew it would not be long for him; he did not have the strength to carry on.

On May 31, 2011 he stayed in the garden and I sat with him we made him as comfortable on June 1, 2011 my best friend and I brought him to the vet we lied on the floor with him we talked to him told him how good he was and at 5:30pm he passed away.

It took months to even think about applying for a new guide dog. On the way to memorial service for my nephew, I was thinking how ironic it was that the same time last year I was doing this same trip but now I have Lucky and last year it was with Jagger. The funny thing is that people would say oh you had to move on. I never felt comfortable about moving on for me that meant it’s over now and something new took over or I could start to forget about him. I new in my heart that I could never forget him nor Eric because they are so intertwined. This last year when I spoke at the schools, spoke of Jagger and his last working job he did bringing me to see Eric and I spoke of Eric and how popular he was in school and how much he disliked bullying. These are two very messages for people to know. So how can you move on from that? At the memorial my great niece said something that was very profound she said “ I can never move on because Eric will be a part of me every day. I think about him all the time”. She also said “I can now start to move forward in my life but I will never forget him because we were friends and brother and sister”.  So I guess you could say I have not move on from Jagger but I am moving forward.

Jagger and I started a special Ministry at the hospitals when we were there. Jagger would get the attention of the patients opening the door so I could speak with them. Not about their spirituality but listens to their concerns’ and take that opportunity to hear their fears. More often than not we end up praying together.  Last Tuesday Lucky fell right into that roll of opening the door with a patient and his wife which allowed me to speak with this couple and help them to gain a better understanding and give them some hope and share some faith to help them move forward.  This action for some strange reason made me think of Jagger maybe it was the way Lucky acted like a big loveable goof y Just like Jagger was. Who loves to leave people fealing  better than when he met them.

John