Posts Tagged ‘Blind’
WiFi Dog !
I love my father in-law, actually I adore both my father and mother in-law but today I am talking about my father in-law.
My father in law Harry is this placid, patient, generous farmer who is incredibly skilled with his hands in mechanics, electronics, in fact in almost anything. His mind is this boiling, bubbling pot of inventiveness that he applies to everything.
Sissi & Saddle Bags
One perennial problem for Judith has been keeping in touch when out and about. This took on new urgency and increased complexity after the injury that damaged her eyesight. Speech to text phones are less than perfect , SMS texting and e-mail messaging are definitely useful but once Judith’s eye sight was damaged we encountered a new problem, she could not see the text on the screen of most mobile phone texting devices. Apple’s iPhone was a possibility because applications have been developed that enhanced screen text but the down side is that iPhone is expensive to buy and run here in Europe, and it is so locked down by Apple that truly innovative development for the people with disabilities is severely restricted. There have been some interesting devices developed in the area of mobile phones but they are always expensive and the pace of development now is such that any investment in those devices effectively ties you into an expensive one or two year contract on technology that is very quickly obsolete.
The solution lay in the Netbook end of the PC market. These cheap devices are much more useful for deaf and visually impaired, but they are usually restricted to wi-fi networks limiting your to communication to only when you are in range of a public access point such as in a café, library, train station etc. This can be got around with 3G modems running off the mobile phone networks. The modems are now cheap and as long as you are not downloading large files they are cost effective but they plug into your netbook and run using power from the netbook shortening battery life and tying the modem to just that device.
One day at a family dinner at which we were discussing this problem and  Nonke’s oldest son Cees said, “What you need is a wifi router connected to a 3G modemâ€. Clearly the comment struck a note with Harry because the other weekend while spending the day at my in-laws farm Harry showed us his solution. Contained within the saddle bags worn by Judith’s guide dog Sissi were a lithium ion battery pack on one side with a 3G data modem attached. There was also an Apple iTouch, plugged into the battery pack and charging. In the other pack was an ASUS T91 Tablet PC with an 8†screen. The combined weight of all this was perhaps more than Sissi would normally carry but it was there to make a point. Harry told us that the MiFi battery lasts for five hours after which it can draw on the main power pack battery. The iTouch has it’s own internal battery but can also be charged from the main power pack battery. The small touch screen netbook runs about three and a half hours but can also be powered by the external battery. Coming onto the market now are a number of larger format touch screen devices in the 15cm to 25cm ranges, all of which could be suitable and lighter substitutes for the relatively heavy ASUS.
We have been testing the setup for the last couple of weeks in slightly different combinations and it has worked well. Occasionally in some of the oldest parts of the city the 3G connections drops, we think something to do with the density of the local stone in buildings here but aside from such minor problem it has worked well. So now Sissi is not only Judith ears and one third of her eyes, she is her wifi point and mobile communications centre. I am much happier knowing I can reach Judith more easily and I know she is more comfortable being out on her own knowing she has instant communications back to any of us. All of this using a set of components that are cheap enough on their own to be upgraded as better products come along and not tied down to long contracts.
WiFi Dogs
Ever Thine, Ever Mine, Ever Ours
Jumbled thoughts………
Ever Thine, Ever Mine
This morning I was sitting on the floor in our library playing with Mariaske and picking out books at random when I happened upon this passage in a biography of Beethoven. It is a letter written by Beethoven to his love, his soul mate the one love he’ll always love. He states that no one’s heart will be truer to hers other than his own, that only he will love her always and forever. He regrets being so far from her but mere distance doesn’t keep his thoughts away, in those he is always with her. He only feels happy, only complete when with her and in her arms, his soul only belongs there. Writing to her means that he is that much closer to her. He talks about one day being with her solely when their mutual love with be complete. When he asks her to be calm is he trying to calm her or himself I wonder. She is his love, she is his very life, and he asks her to never misjudge…never believe false tales and rumors…of the one man who loves her so unconditionally. He is ever hers as she is ever his…they are ever one.
“Â Good morning, on July 7
Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us – I can live only wholly with you or not at all – Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits – Yes, unhappily it must be so – You will be the more contained since you know my fidelity to you. No one else can ever possess my heart – never – never – Oh God, why must one be parted from one whom one so loves. And yet my life in V is now a wretched life – Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men – At my age I need a steady, quiet life – can that be so in our connection? My angel, I have just been told that the mailcoach goes every day – therefore I must close at once so that you may receive the letter at once – Be calm, only by a calm consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together – Be calm – love me – today – yesterday – what tearful longings for you – you – you – my life – my all – farewell. Oh continue to love me – never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.
ever thine
ever mine
ever ours”
They were separated by distance and duty, isolated and alone but their love and devotion would prevail
I cried.
I cried because ………………………..I felt sorry for myself. Self pity is so distasteful so it is not very nice to let it show, but it is worse when one really had no right or reason to feel it. Blind as well as deaf this year I have felt, at times very isolated and alone, and I also feel very guilty about that, because through it all I have had so much attention lavished on me and it is churlish of me to be so self indulgent.
Self doubt is a terrible thing, a rather pathetic and pitiful thing too, but right now I am riddled with it. I hate it, and I hate myself also. I know that I am loved as wonderfully as Beethoven loved his “Immortal Belovedâ€, if not more so and yet I feel unworthy of that love and unsure what I bring to our partnership at this time. I know bring all the negative things, deafness, blindness, baroness and burden, but just what do I bring that is positive?
All I have done this year is live in fear of the darkness, I have not been brave, I just clung onto what little sanity I could find as though it were the last straw in the ocean that I was drowning in. If you only knew just how frightened I have been, if you only knew how many times I came close to actually wetting myself in fright, how I have wanted to dive into our big linen cupboard and hide from the world
-Â - – - I am ashamed at myself.
I have survived this year through the help and very, very good grace of those around me, all of them, because each one has given me something of my life back this year……
Nina, My Beethoven; “Look for the good in all things†my mother always says, and in this horrid year Nina has in so many ways blossomed. Last weekend watching her as we readied ourselves for our trip to my Parents for Sinterklaas, I watched as she herded, cajoled, blackmailed and manipulated us all into readiness, she is now the mistress of our family, the ring master. I could feel the strength flowing off her and renewing me from one moment to the next. She has spent the weekend moving between my rather extended family members doing the diplomatic tricks that allow our sometimes rather disparate genetic pool to function as well as it does, deftly stepping between family frictions to smooth and calm. Despite having more and more responsibilities piled onto her as my abilities declined she has absorbed them and just kept going, all the while still working and doing her important job.
Maybe here is the other side to the bad karma I had been experiencing and if that is the case then it has not been such a bad year after all. I always knew she was a person of unique strength and passion, but now perhaps everyone else has had the chance to see it as well.
Author: Judith.
