Pneumonia!! Again!! In the summertime,..no less!! I don't think that there have been three warm days in a row this summer!!

I am going to the doctor this afternoon to see if I can get a new anti-biotic!!

Gads!!

I didn't get to Deaf Church this Sunday and I doubt that I will get out much this week! :(

My old friend, "Jello,"..the deaf gal in the wheelchair, has passed her "manual skills" driving test!! I heard about it through the "grape-vine!" She can't hear,...can't walk,..(From what gossip I've seen! My best gossip comes via hand-talk,..please remember that!!")...has lost some of her memories from her stroke???..(not sure on this one!!)...and now has mobility, which depends on a wheelchair and van!! I hope to see her in church on Sunday and ask her about the "stroke" thingie!

Jello awes me!! A deaf parapalegic, who can't remember!

To some, that would sound like a source of great amusement! Perhaps even writing about her here will make her the source of some comedy "routines" to be repeated for the edification of folks, who will never understand what her life has been like! To me, she is a great source of what can be done with oneself under the harshest of circumstances!

Being deaf,..she had little or no access as a child to any sort of language till she was fitted with a hearing aid. In our age group, that would have meant that she could have spent her first three or four years totally without language at all!! Then,..she would have been fitted with a hearing aide and taught how to speak! This would have been followed by an education period of learning to read and write and speak,..talents which most folks just take for granted. She wound up with an MA in social work and years of working successfully in action for one of the largest social services units in that city!!

Somewhere along the years,..she would have learned some "sign language" and would have been "set free" as I have seen the expression used among deaf friends. In another time and place, I would have tried to explain what I meant by "set free," but not here and not now!!

What is making me very happy right now is the fact that "Jello" can drive again!! That is freedom in itself!! She and her husband, who is totally deaf,..have probably overcome obstacles in their lifetimes which would be beyond the belief of most folks.

Heh! "Jello,..like "Ro," the gal in the wheelchair with whom I have been working for the past two years,..is married to her second husband!! Both of these women were as able as anyone else in that "dept!!" And both had at least two or three healthy children, who grew up into some seriously accomplished adults!!

I wonder if "Jello" has had the problem that "Ro" had with folks assuming that just because she was in a wheel chair that she was mentally "slow!" I don't know and the next time I am at "Deaf church,"..I will ask her!!

A unbroken caption unit on the TV!

A unbroken caption unit on the TV!

My "kingdom" for a working and fully functioning TV captioning unit on my TV!!

This weekend was very quiet!! I decided to watch a daylong special on TV about a detective named Monk! I don't know if the young blond lady with him was there to explain certain things to him or not,..but the man,..(the detective).. did a lot of things, that make absolutely no sense!!

In one episode,..a young lady showed a great deal of interest in him!! He seemed afraid of her!!

???????

In that same episode,.he spoke to her and used a system of cards to come up with answers of things to say to her on the telephone!! Then,..he made this same lady walk up many flights of steps to eat in a restaurant at the top of a building?

??????

There was a perfectly good elevator that they could have ridden up in!!

In the episode with the monkey..(ape,..chimpanzee!),..I noticed right off that the chimp did not like bald men, and I was under the impression that they arrested the poor animal for murder!! The ensuing activities at the police station almost made me fall off my chair with laughter!!

Who would be stupid enough to hand a chimp a loaded gun and try to get him or her angry??

The police captain,..it seems!!

I got the feeling that I was missing quite a bit from the reason and rationale behind this TV show!!

I think that someone has forged my e-mail address at Hotmail again in order to try and gain access to my blogger password. Interesting.

Upon comment and criticism from J----- in our conversation at the SHH picnic,..I have to admit not everyone from California is a "fluff-head."

There are a few "fluff heads,"...who live in New York City,...too!!

WWWWWWHHHHHHHHAAAAAAT????

ME????

Be BIGOTED????????

Would I do that??..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................!!!!!!!!







(snarf!)

I went to the Self-Help for hard of hearing picnic the other yesterday. Both my husband and I had a very good time even though we did not stay as long as I would have liked to stay!!

I met up with my friend, who teaches at Kent State,..and we had a nice short chat. She told me that our mutual friend, "Jello,"...has not been the victim of an auto accident as I was told by several of the totally deaf folks that I chatted with at the Deaf Church! It seems as though "Jello" has a stroke!

As to my friend with the PhD,..she has retired from her "rehab" job and is now just enjoying her professorship at Kent State! I don't blame her! She is a wonderful woman,..who deserves a restful retirement!! (If anyone reading this actually knew as to whom I was refering,..they would get the joke!!)

Errrrrrm!! Restful retirement?

This woman???

I don't think so!!

J---- is really probably going to run for congresswoman!!

(Again,..a joke!!)

The upshot is that this woman has probably lived three or four life times' activities in one lifetime. I wonder why "hard of hearing' folks feel like they have to continually prove to the world around themselves that they can accomplish not just the ordinary requirements of life..but go beyond and try to do the "super-human?"

This question goes back to my continual "study of human nature!!"

I have been asked about what I think about the UPN television show..."Amish In The City."

What do I think???

Suppose someone took you out of your "natural" enviroment and placed you in a situation full of the "uneducated,..stupid, bigoted, and naturally doltish!!" Well,..that is what UPN did with the Amish kids from "Amish In The City"..when they put them in an appartment with a bunch of "California fluff heads!"

Can you imagine what it would be like to walk into a group of folks, who upon seeing you in your "native costume"...took one look at you and mocked it and asked you if your wearing of that costume was.."For real???"

Can you imagine being among these same "fluff heads" and watching them mock your clothes,..that you wear by way of your religious beliefs, when they are asked to wear those same clothes to an amusment park?

Can you imagine almost drowning in an ocean cross current and being afraid and then suddenly realizing that you could have REALLY died and becoming so overcome with emotion over that fact and being mocked and laughed at by the "city fluff heads"..for showing a deep emotion of the type that the "fluff heads" seem unable to feel or understand?

I don't even want to know what the "fluff heads" were saying when the young Amishman, Mose,..got down on his knees and prayed in German,..(dammit...I wish that I could have actually HEARD what he was saying!)...and then,..read his Bible OUT LOUD in German!! I have only seen the first episode of Amish in the city, but I have seen it twice and it has been well explained to me. I am now a definite "Mose" fan!!

Many of my own online experiences were reinforced by what I heard from watching that first show. Once,..I wrote a "fanfic" and included in it a very accurate description of what it was like to go to a church service in a barn...including the need to wear a broad brimmed hat during the service because of the sparrows and pigeons,..who live in that barn!! I do believe what I was trying to say..when I wrote that "story"..was lost because the folks, who were reading the story, had never experieced such a thing for themselves, and were too busy being told what to "think" by someone...to actually listen to what I was trying to say.

Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett says in his poem, "Simple Gifts:"

"'Tis the gift to be simple,
'Tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down
where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves
in the place just right
'Twill be in the valley
of love and delight!!"

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once said:

"Freedom does not mean the
right to do whatever we
please, but rather to do
whatever we ought....
The right to do whatever
we please reduces freedom
to a physical power and
forgets that freedom is
a moral power."

Bishop Sheen definitely has a point there to ponder till one runs into those folks to whom moralty is just an illusion!! And I have learned online and in real life that such folks definitely do exist!! :d

Then,...one considers the morality of a small arachnid.......

I had gone to visit Mary Y..., whom I call,..my old "butter-and-egg lady." Mary's family residence does not have indoor plumbing. I felt the need to "answer the call of nature" and asked Mary Y...., "Where is your..errrm..."bathroom?"

"Same place it always was!!" she answers me,.."Behind the barn!"

Upon entering the domicile of the poor furry, black little gray and white spider,..I planted my plumpness right in the middle of a space that she had chosen to weave her web. She bite me in one of those spots, located on my anatomy, where the "sun don't shine!!" Her demise involved much smacking and screeching on my part. The poor little creature, then,..made a long drop down a very deep black hole!!

I will not go into the details of swelling and pain or the gasping need for antihistamine!! There was no morality involved in the whole affair and Bishop Sheen's observations on freedom being a moral power were laid to rest on this particular occasion!!

addendum...

(For the person, who asked me just what a spider has to do with the concept of "morality!" Spiders have no concept of morality!! They are just.."spiders!"

The point of my little story was that spiders and people, who have no sense of right and wrong,...just do as they please irregardless of those whom they hurt...ie....sociopaths!!

As I was taught as a child,:

.... what separates people from animals and other creatures

...(think on that!!)

....is the fact that people are supposed to have a sense of right and wrong

.....and sense enough to use that knowledge properly!!)