Grease And Sugar Monthly

Hints And Comments For A Blind Person On Trimming A Christmas Tree

2010-11-27T21:45:00.000-08:00

It may be a little odd to some people, but some blind people have never decorated a Christmas tree. There was a recent request on a list-serve that I follow from a blind couple for directions on how to independently trim a tree. I have done this many times as a totally blind person, since losing my eyesight. It is not a science but there are some general principles which I follow.

We have been married for 34 years and have lots of ornaments collected over the years. Our first tree was just 2 feet tall, sat on a table had maybe a dozen ornaments and 1 string of lights. I bought it for $1 very near Christmas and all the needles fell off within a couple hours of bringing it into the house. We loved the tree, just the same.

Some people have theme trees and some people have all the same colored lights and ornaments. We are very eclectic. We have ornaments that remind us of people and events in our lives and they range from computers to pets, sports, food, reindeer to abstract curiosities. I like eclectic, myself.

Mary and I have a stylized star for the top of ours. It is pretty old and too heavy for some trees. I sometimes have to trim the point down to get a stem strong enough to hold it up. But, that is tradition for you.
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Re: angel hair, I do not think we have any of those ornaments, though I do like them. The fiber glass is a little irritating to the skin if it is handled much.

We now have an artificial tree. I basically object to this, but I am too lazy to fight about it, since I will have to go out in the weather and cold and wet, bring the tree home, let it dry out, mount it in a stand and have it tip over a couple times before I get it right, then clean up all the needles after we take it down. I love the smell of a real tree. I like the ecological reasons for having a real tree. Real trees create more jobs than artificial and the disposal is more ecologically friendly than a plastic, glass and metal tree. So, convenience and laziness, in me, is turning me into an environmental hypocrite. Just like a liberal like me, huh? (smile)

I prefer starting at the bottom with the lights. The lights go on first. Then garland if you use it, then ornaments then tinsel if you use it instead of garland. Garland and tinsel are optional. Most people don't use both, though there are no rules. We started using garland because cats are vulnerable to choking on tinsel. A more earth friendly alternative is to string popcorn with or without cranberries and use it instead of garland. This takes a lot of patience and that is why I don't do it.

One of the most annoying parts of lighting a tree is knowing if the string actually lights. Our color identifier has a light probe on it, so we can use it, now, to know if a bulb is lit. You can also plug them in and feel if they get warm. Most tree lights are wired in parallel and so if 1 goes out, they all go out. I find this to be the most annoying part of decorating. So, plug in the lights before you string them on the tree to make bulb replacement easier.

Unless there is a window behind the tree, I do not totally encircle the tree. I start nearest the electrical outlet then go straight across proceeding around toward the opposite side near the wall opposite from where you start, then go up six inches to a foot, depending on how many lights you have and then come back across, keeping the second string as near parallel to the first as possible. Keep repeating until you reach the top It is sometimes necessary to adjust if you come up with too few to reach the top, or have too many left when you reach the top, though this is not as much a problem since you can simply reverse and go back down. You may end up with more lights at the top if you do this, which really isn't a big problem, depending on how fussy you want to be. If possible, imagine where most people will view the tree from and consider that most of the decorations should be visible from that point of view and look relatively evenly distributed. My only rule is "do my best have fun and don't worry."

With the ornaments, I start with the larger ones and try to distribute them evenly from left to right and top to bottom. I then fill in the blank areas with smaller ones.

Hope this is useful.

Justice

2010-11-26T20:46:00.000-08:00

Lots of thoughts going on. I'm not sure what kind of fundamental principles universally apply in life, if any. My personal values and ethics are informed by my Christianity. To me, the Bible, especially Matthew in the New Testament, is meaningful, true and works no matter one's particular religious beliefs. The idea that, as clearly stated in the Lord's Prayer, God is in Heaven, he wants the Heavenly system to be present on earth for all of us to benefit from.

Mike and I were talking about justice this morning. The son of a mutual acquaintance killed a woman while driving drunk. It was his second accident while driving drunk. Clearly, society has a responsibility to protect itself from such behavior. Deterrence is a viable means of protection. In this case, the driver is facing a potential 25 year prison sentence. From the societal perspective, this accomplishes 2 things. It provides a deterrent to others who may become aware of the consequences of such behavior. It also, and directly addresses this person's behavior, gets him off the streets and isolates him so he will not, for 25 years, be able to repeat his offense.

So far, so good. Now, my question about justice. Is there justice? How is justice, repentance, love and material utility served by such a sentence? For 25 years, taxpayers will need to pay for this person's support. Society will not benefit from any potential contribution he may make to GNP or other similar measures. Presumably, he will not be able to have a family and thus there will be no gain from potential progeny of this person.

What about prison, itself. What does the institution do to a person? Is there any measurable benefit to any, let alone an otherwise decent citizen, from spending 25 years in there? Is there potential to make this person an even worse citizen when they ultimately get out? Is the mass incarceration of people with little regard to the type of offense committed a sensible approach.

If one takes the approach that prison's primary mission is to isolate people who commit anti-social acts like drunk driving the same as those who premeditate crimes like murder, robbery and similar crimes then the sentence and the mixing of behavioral criminals is consistent. If one believes in redemption and the possibility of repentance, then maybe we could design a better prison. How much are we willing to invest in this humanitarian endeavor, given that we are unwilling to invest in education for non criminal children?

Killing someone due to willful disregard for the safety or welfare of others is a selfish act which is not to be taken lightly. I wonder if locking someone up for 25 years in a dependent unproductive role is the best society can do to ameliorate and rectify the offense. Our laws are in flux on this topic, with the trend moving toward more severe consequences. The emotional reaction is perfectly understandable. He killed a 25 year old woman who was a missionary and a servant to society. It was avoidable and senseless. Maybe locking him up for 25 years is the best we can do.

God seems like the ultimate libertarian. We have free will. He teaches us about consequences, but does not intervene to control our decisions, daily. If I take the Bible in its whole, there are all kinds of teachings in there that could involve almost any kind of punishment or correction imaginable. God is expecting more from us than a prescriptive relationship. We are called upon to do justice and love God. These are deeply held values of mine. I am certain that the law is not the best we can do, I am not sure what will be better. It will, as inefficient as it is, just have to do until our thinkers can come up with something better. The answer is most certainly outside the prison system and probably outside the justice system. With our lawmakers being controlled more by special interests than voters, I wonder where the consensus will come from.

Science Camp Day 2

2010-07-19T04:36:00.000-07:00

I am writing in the morning of the second day of Science Camp at Camp Tuhsmeheta. Yesterday, the campers arrived in the afternoon. We made introductions and talked about science concepts and our attitudes towards science. We are doing a camp around ecology. Most of the campers want to start fires and want to know more about fire. This is really funny to me.

A goal of this camp is to bring together adults from the regular and special education communities to reduce barriers to the participation in science classes for blind students. So far this is going splendidly. Cranbrook Institute will be here this morning to make a presentation to the campers about water. Mick Isaacson from Independence Science LLc (www.independencescience.com) is developing accessible software for the Labquest test equipment used in many college and high school classrooms. It is amazing to be able to record, chart and ultimately manipulate data on accessible equipment. The software is in alpha test mode at this point, so wefeel priviledged to have input into groundbreaking technology.

We have a veteran science teacher who is leading the campers and who has, along with a former student of hers, has designed the curriculum for the week. They have done a marvelous job. We will study lake, stream and wetland and forest environments. We will take measurements, record the measurements and compile data. We are attempting to, give the campers an overview of how science is done. We have discussed the ideas of competing viewpoints and that some scientists propose ideas and others challlenge those ideas. We haved discussed how politics and culture effect these debates.

This science camp is a collaboration between the National Federation of the Blind of Michigan (nfbmi.org nfb.org)and Opportunities Unlimited for the Blind, Inc (oub.org). NFBMI is paying OUB to host the camp. NFBMI's role is content development. OUB has done a splendid job with facilities and staffing. More later.

2010-06-01T20:44:00.001-07:00

Here it is June 1. Coming up on the summer solstice, my brother's birthday and the halfway point on our calendar for this year. I have that cliché kind of thought about how I could actually stop time when I was around 5 or 6 years old. Then, I wanted time to keep moving, except sometimes when I stopped it for a minute or 2. I wish I could remember how I did that.

Of course the Gulf oil spill is mightily on my mind, along with Mary and a lot of my friends. I am sure that BP wishes it could stop time for a while. I vacillate between anger about how they could let such a thing happen and some empathy for having responsibility to accomplish a task for which they haven't any experience to fix. We live in this fantasy world that thinks there are instant fixes for things. Ask anyone who watches a loved one die of cancer or some bacterial infection. Sometimes there are no instant fixes.

I am, in no way, reducing BP's responsibility. They have made billions of dollars selling us oil. They needed to have done a better job protecting us from this accident. They didn't. Now, it must be stopped. All the hand wringing, haranguing, fretting and accusations will not stop the leak. I sure wish I knew how.

There are 2 apparently contrary lessons here. First, we are alone. Ultimately, we must be self-reliant and must be prepared to manage our lives and our affairs. Second, we are all in this together. We must learn to gather around one another in our hour of need and help. Hating, accusing and the like will not plug the hole, in fact, fighting will probably slow progress.

My best answer is prayer. From here in Michigan, all I can meaningfully contribute is my spiritual support. Another cliché comes to mind. "love the sinner: hate the sin."

2010-05-31T22:13:00.001-07:00

I've been experimenting and learning about blogging with MS Word. Yesterday's blog has some spelling errors. I am a little ashamed of them. I am not a careless person, for the most part. I just was so excited about the ease of publishing the blog with Word that I do not have the heart to change it now and it was so cool, yesterday when it worked so effortlessly, that I forgot to spell check.

As you will observe, if you take the time to review the posts herein, I have been a spotty blogger to say the least. I have promised, before, to do better, so I won't do that, again.

I am at a point where I need to make some choices. I need to decide how to handle Twitter. It takes too much of my time and it is interfering with some other important activities. I need to decide how to blog and what I want to, ultimately, do with this resource. It is a cool thing, but not real useful, at the moment. I have a garden and home chores to attend to. I have a book to work on. I have been sick, recently, so I have my health to attend to. These need to be managed better.

I am still withdrawing from my former job, 3 years later, make that 4 years, come June. Likewise for the NFBMI presidency. I have reduced my work for NFB considerably, but am still very emotionally and spiritually involved.

Speaking of spiritual matters, I still feel inadequate with my church contributions. I am still not sure exactly how to carve out a niche that will be good for the God, church and me.

Memorial Day has caused me to think about these things. Some people die very young. I have been given this time. What is my best way to respond to this gift? Difficult to set priorities. I will keep trying.

As you will observe, if you take the time to review the posts herein, I have been a spotty blogger to say the least. I have promised, before, to do better, so I won't do that, again.

I am at a point where I need to make some choices. I need to decide how to handle Twitter. It takes too much of my time and it is interfereing with some other important activities. I need to decide how to blog and what I want to, ultimately, do with this resource. It is a cool thing, but not real useful, at the moment. I have a garden and home chores to attend to. I have a book to work on. I have been sick, recently, so I have my health to attend to. These need to be managed better.

Speaking of spiritual matters, I still feel inadequate with my church contributions. I am still not sure exactly how to carve out a niche that will be good for the God, church and me.

Memorial Day 2010

2010-05-29T19:25:00.001-07:00

Memorial Day 2010

I can remember many years grilling outside with my family with the radio tuned to the Indianapolis 500. My father was a race fan and we both read mechanix illustrated and Motor trend Magazines each month. We loved the suspense of the long races and enjoyed rooting for our favorite racers.

Grilling in my family, was my mother's area of expertise. Today, either Marc, my son, or I do the grilling and Mary does not. Indoor cooking is appropriated according to who is the most motivated (hungry) to get things going.

My father hated camping. He served in WWII and said he had all the camping in Europe that he could stand. He hated tents and sleeping bags. He told many stories of the horrible conditions while his unit fought its way across Europe. He received a medal for inventing a kind of stove that could operate on gasoline without exploding and burning everything and everyone up. He came from a farm and was a very good innovator. His invention made a lot of people, even if modestly, more comfortable.

I am so proud of my father's contributions to defeating Hitler. Hitler was a horrible evil person who needed stopping.my father also received a Purple Heart when he was wounded during an artiliary attack. His good friend was killed by the same explosion. He always said that his friend saved him by shielding him. The strange idea of pure randomness was a lesion that I learned from this story. A random artiliary shell launched from many miles away explodes. 2 people a few feet apart are victims of the explosion. 1 is killed the other wounded. Who can possibly explain any meaning from that, except to be grateful for every day.

My father died when I was 16. I wish he had lived longer. He may not have lived that long if the wind had blown the shell a little off course, or the other soldier had been a foot one way or the other. We can only be grateful to God for every opportunity we get.

I sometimes oppose wars. I sometimes oppose political decisions. I even sometimes oppose Pentagon decisions on tactics or strategies. I never oppose our soldiers who go to fight on my behalf. Many times I feel politicians are far too cavalier with this precious resource. I am lividly angry at the lack of support that has been shown recently to the Veterans Administration to take care of Vets. Most homeless people in Lansing are Vets. Why can't the VA have a home for every homeless vet? These are special people who deserve our love.

Preparing to leave

2010-01-01T16:33:00.000-08:00

Mary and I went to Mike and Shirley’s for New Years last night. It was exactly a year ago, now, that we decided to be in Hawaii this time in 2009. We missed our goal by 1 week because of resort availability. Not bad.

Mike has done a great job getting our plane reservations. There is some confusion and uncertainty, though because of 2 big picture things. First Northwest Airlines in the middle of consolidating operations with Delta who purchased them. We originally booked with Northwest. They are changing routes and schedules and our reservations have changed a couple times. When we checked last night, the phone information system had a different return for us from the email itinerary that we received. We will need to reconcile this.

Second, some idiot tried to attack a flight on Christmas day. Though it was clearly the fault of the bureaucrats for not keeping this known threat (his father had turned him in) all airline passengers are being punished by tightening up security procedures. In my opinion, I am in much more danger riding in a car than flying, so why all the panic? Humans are quite irrational sometimes.

I am about to pack. I don’t know exactly what I want to take. Of course, I have around 36 hours to figure it out, so no rush, yet! (smile)

I am most interested in the natural environment of Hawaii and in a virtual tie, is to taste lots of food, especially fruit and seafood. I look forward to hearing some local Hawaiian slack Key guitar players. I am writing this here so I can compare my expectations with what we actually do. Of course, meeting new people and meeting up with some NFB acquaintances will be gratifying, as well.

The next entry will probably be from Hawaii on the 4th or so.

Michner's hawaii

2009-12-29T23:21:00.000-08:00

We finished reading Michners book "Hawaii a few minutes ago. It is more than 50 hours in audio format. It has given me some things to look for. Although the book is more than 50 years old, now, it gave me a sense of how geography, culture and politics have converged to make, Hawaii, a model for the changes to be encountered here on the mainland. The discrimination, prejudice and exploitation of minorities by the ruling class has given way to integration, economic power and political involvement by all groups. Because Hawaii is dominated by the Pacific, the dynamics are different from those here. It is clear that California is much like Hawaii in the way it must deal with these issues from an an Aisianrather than European emphasis. After the names are removed, though, the issues of political and economic integration are the same. The book is wonderful.

Trip to Hawaii

2009-12-28T18:40:00.000-08:00

Mary and I are going to Hawaii for 2 weeks. This will be our first time, there. We are both very excited about our trip. We are traveling with our friends Mike and Shirley. We will be on Owahu, about 30 miles from Honolulu.

We are planning on doing hiking, eating, swimming, eating, touring Honolulu, eating, playing in the big waves on the north shore and did mention Eating?

I hope to do blog entries here during our trip to document our experiences. If you have any comments or suggestions for us, please let us know by making a comment below. I plan to make detailed and general comments about food, airplanes, the resort, the people and anything else that occurs to me.

Amusing Quote

2009-09-22T18:56:00.000-07:00

The minute you or anybody else knows what you are you are not it, you are what you
or anybody else knows you are and as everything in living is made up of finding out
what you are it is extraordinarily difficult really not to know what you are and
yet to be that thing.
The minute you or anybody else knows what you are you are not it, you are what you
or anybody else knows you are and as everything in living is made up of finding out
what you are it is extraordinarily difficult really not to know what you are and
yet to be that thing.
Author:
Gertrude Stein

Now, she sure has a way with words.

Trip To Hawaii

2009-08-28T20:19:00.000-07:00

Mike and Shirly Ellis and Mary and I are going to Hawaii in January. I am quite excited about our trip. Mike and Shirly are coming over tomorrow to discuss possible tours. At thisw moment, I would like to post comments here about our trip including planning and then posts from Hawaii. I wonder if I can post audio? I would love to post recordings from Hawaii for everyone to hear.

Chicago Trip

2008-09-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

I went to Chicago on a business trip this week. I live in Lansing, MI, a medium size city. I travel to Detroit regularly. It is, inevitable that I make a comparison.

Chicago is a vibrant and strong place, while Detroit struggles.The city of Detroit is far more familiar to me than Chicago, so my comments are be to be judjed through that lense. Detroit streets are easy to navigate as a blind person. Chicago is very loud and there is stuff all over the sidewalks, everywhere. Chicago has the most wonderful public transit. It is easy to get most anywhere by rail. In addition, there are busses to supplement the rail system.

Downtown Chicago has a "pedway" that is a subterranian system of tunnels connecting a lot of downtown businesses and streets. It is a good alternative to the loud environment on the surface, but is limited in that it does not go everywhere.

In addition to the Chicago trip, Mary, Larry Posont and I traveled to Desmoines Iowa for Allen Harris' retirement celebration. Desmoines has a system of overhead pedestrian walkways. This system seems to connect most places in the downtown area. It is similar to the Minneapolis pedestrian system.

Now, Detroit has the People Mover which is a very good way to move about downtown Detroit, however it is a small system. The Detroit bus system is a mere skeleton of its former self. It is still possible to get around, but it is not as easy or convenient as in past times.

Now, I must comment on age. I commented to someone this week that I formerly did not notice the noise. The noise interferes with my travel confidence. I must sometimes force myself to venture into that noisy environment without the benefit of reliable sound cues. Part of it is certainly my unfamiliarity with the area, but the sounds of the elevated trains obliterates almost all sound as they pass. There is a lot of construction that makes noise plus disrupts the sidewalks. The complex and stimulus-rich environment forces me to think carefully about all my cane travel training, my belief in my skills and the use of the cane. When I think rationally, I regain confidence and step out with faith in my abilities.

Since bloggingis new to me, please forgive the rambling nature of this post. Travel has always been an important part of my life. Venturing on to the streets of Chicago has caused me to take stock of my feelings. To become fully confident, I would need weeks of traveling alone. I did glimpse the edge of my fear and confidence and am encouraged. Age, with its accompanying change in my senses and sensitivities, and lack of practice have definitely undermined my confidence, but these experiences assure me that I can succeed anytime I choose.

2008-09-04T07:35:00.000-07:00

I watchedthe vice president nominee last night. I guess if that is the best she could do to campaign, it is a pretty poorstatement of what the Republicans are offering. If the most they can do is talk about the Democrats, obscure the fact that she did try to get the bridge to nowhere, hired a lawyer to try to get earmarks for her town, then how is she for change?

She bragged about her vetoes. What did she veto? That is more interesting than that she vetoed stuff. Why didn't she say what she vetoed?

The whole convention keeps bringing up Reagan. Is that where they are living? We need to think today, not 30 years ago. Speaking of Reagan and Bush, it should be pointed out that each of them created record deficits during their administrations. Where is the fiscal conservatism in that? Why is Reagan a hero? He killed plans to make America energy self-sufficient begun by Carter. He killed the change to the metric system. He created huge debts for the country. All I hear to his credit is his rhetoric, the very criticism the Republicans are leveling at Obama. Where is the consistency?

Enough of my rant for now. I have been thinking about our garden. We have a raised bed "Square Foot Garden." it is in 2 2'x8'x2' boxes that our neighbor calls coffins. We grew string beans, radishes, basil, tomatos, peppers, eggplant, carrots and onions. The tomatos are the most successful. The radishes are the biggest failures. The radishes grew very large tops with no radish under the ground. My brother told me that I did not plant the seeds deep enough. We will try some different things next year.

2008-09-03T17:12:00.000-07:00

I have been watching the 2 national political conventions. I am trying to be objective about the Republican event. It is not possible. The tone is so negative. Viewpoints need not equal moral defects. It is not morally defective to believe that we are are our brother's keepers. It is not unpatriotic to disagree with the war in Iraq. God will do the judging.
Sure, I get angry about other's disregard of the rights of others, insensitivity toward my friends and family or bigotry and hatred. My job is to do justice and love God and let God handle His stuff.
I am not sure I can watch as the Republicans will tell us that they are righteous and everyone who disagrees is some kind of moral defective. Not my style.

Labor Day Weekend 2008

2008-09-02T19:59:00.000-07:00

Well, hello, I will try to be more regular about posting here.
Over Labor Day, I went with 7 friends to the Upper Penninsula. Our main goal was to walk the Mackinac Bridge on Labor Day. On Sunday, however, we went to the Munising area. We visited Laughing Whitefish Falls and then went to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Some of us climbed up the falls. This particular falls has a ledge at the top where water goes straight down and then it flows down a long series of small ledges like irregular steps and slanted rock faces.
We had a lot of fun playing in the water and challenging ourselves on the rocks.
At Pictured Rocks, we swam in Miners River where it flows into Lake Superior. 3 of our group jumped off the rock cliffs into Lake Superior. I just enjoyed the sensation of sitting on bed rock and feeling the water move around me in the river.
It was the fourth or fifth time I walked the Bridge. I love it every time. The bridge seems so light and fragile, strange since it is made of iron and concrete. The bridge seems to sit so lightly on the earth. The whole idea of a five mile long structure less than 100 feet wide seems so delicate in the context of the Great Lakes and the land masses that it connects.
I feel a spiritual connection with God when I visit the falls, Pictured Rocks and the Bridge. God gave us such a gift when we were imbued with free will, imagination and curiosity. Since God created us, the beautiful things we appreciate and construct must be extensions of His glory.
This is not my most eloquent writing. I hope to get better as I learn this Blog thing. The format gets in my way. I find it cumbersome to post these messages.

Another Try

2007-06-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

Being an Oracle in training has advantages. Posts to this Blog will vary in insightand meaning. My inspiration is the Oracle At Delphi. “All things in moderation.”This seems like a valuable place to start. I suppose the trap is that even moderatedoses of some things are to be avoided.Well, that is what I hope to explore on this Blog – the reasonableness of varioustrends and actions around me. I will be interested in all comments. Please be gentle,after all, I am in training and sensitive and easily hurt.

2007-06-23T10:18:00.000-07:00

2007-06-23T10:12:00.000-07:00