If It Quacks Like a Duck...

glitter-graphics.com

Today was the day of my third map. Already!! So much progress, so much time. I am holding on just fine and dandy.

Dreading the word comprehension testing as I always do, I knew I just had to do what I could. (Really, no one likes to fail a test!!) First the audie put me in the sound booth (a short jail term of maybe 1/2 an hour. I can handle that...) to hear tones. High ones. Low ones. Weird ones. I had to raise my hand every time I heard a sound, no matter how soft. The soft ones are tricky for me. Do I hear it? Is that what I’m hearing or is that an echo? After that was done, I was tested on single words with a male voice recording. The man always said, “Ready” before the word. (Ready…word, ready…word.) Then, with the male voice again, I was tested on sentences.

Before the CI (cochlear implant) I had a CNT (could not test-no speech could be heard) in the implanted ear (before it was implanted), but the right ear (the hearing aid-HA-ear) test results for the word test was a paltry 6%!! After a month of activation, I got a 26%. The audie/cheerleader said that it was good for a one-month post-activation test. Patting myself on the back. From 0 to 26 in one month. Zoooming off. Whoo-hoo.

With the sentence test, before the CI, the ear had a CNT rating, but the HA ear got 46% in Sept. 06 and 32% in January 08. Now, with the implanted ear I got 79%. (0 to 79? What kind of engine is in that CI anyway? Winks.) Not bad. I was SOoooo surprised to do as well as I did. The voices are still robotic, but I’m getting more sense of it every day and with today’s new map, the robotic sounds are really tapering down. Yep, a little less “ducky.” You know that saying “if it quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, then it MUST be a duck? Well, obviously, not every person I talk to are ducks. LOL

She also balanced out the electrodes. She had two electrodes go off with a beep sequentially (one after the other) and I had to tell her if they sounded the same or whether one was louder or softer. They all had to be equal-sounding. Sometimes it was hard to tell, but I did get the more obvious “higher” or “lower” beeps. I could almost picture the electrodes as a xylophone and hitting the same thingy twice. Ting, Ting. Or Ting, Tong. Nope, didn’t match.

BTW, you guys know I call the CI “Pete” or “Petey”, but Hubby says it should be “Mr. Roboto” after a song from Styx. LOL. Okay, so that can be Petey's nickname.

Instead of all the programs with ADRO with increased volume, I have:

P1-ADRO
P2-ADRO with more volume
P3-Focused Listening (Beam)
P4-Music with autosensitivity

I kind of slapped Hubby on the knee and obviously hinted around with “MP3 player for Christmas” LOL Great for listening to music. Winks. I was advised to listen to familiar songs (Hubby piped up with Christmas carols and I am thinking of my favorite songs that I know-mostly those that were popular in the 80s and some country songs, too.)

My next map is supposed to be for the 3 month mark. That is in November. The audie did say that I may call or email her with any problems and if I needed a tweak or fine-tuning, then I could come in before the 3-month appt. Let's see how much Petey and I work together by then and get a 90 0r better? Sentences are easier because they do fill in the blanks somehow and I can get them in context. Single word tests are hard for most of us. There's nothing else to work with. I might get the ending (rhyme) or the beginning of the word ("sh") or even the middle of the word (vowel) or something.

On the home front:

glitter-graphics.com

Angel got to race with her peers in a Fun Run thing that a local organization set up for grade school kids. (Last week it was canceled because of the rain.) They get a free tee shirt (who cares that it had the original run date on it?) for participating in the run. Angel ran with the other 3rd grade girls. Only one girl was a classmate and one was a girl from our neighborhood that we knew. They only gave out first thru sixth places. Angel made it to the sixth place!! Yay. You go, girl!! I treated her to a shake for her accomplishment. She liked that. It was a ½ mile run, too. She said she got tired and walked a bit, but I’m still proud of her. Next year, fourth grade boys and girls race together (not separately). She’s kind of freaking out about that. Boys are fast!! Well, if she wanted to, she could work at it and be faster. I’m not going to push her, though.

The end of the week is the mid-quarter time for Flare. I have teacher conferences next Monday. (I never knew that there were conferences in high school unless there was a serious problem. I had to ask my mom about that. She said that they went to the conferences. I guess that because my parents were active in several organizations like Lion's Club, investment clubs, and stamp clubs, that I never really questioned their comings and goings.) Anyway, I am not really complaining too much about her grades so far (I check her grades online. Isn't that something? Information Age has really come so far.) :)

Angel is too young to have mid-quarter progress reports. I think they start at 5th grade at her school, but there will be a parent-teacher conference at the end of the first quarter. The graded paperwork that she brings home every week are really good, so I am not too worried about her academically. She does have some issues behavior-wise. She's very hyper and cannot sit still.

The weather here has been GREAT. Lots of SUN and cool breezes. Yesterday marked the first day of autumn. It still feels like summer. Yeah, I know. When school starts, you feel like summer is over, but technically we still have a few weeks left of summer when school starts. The calendar doesn’t lie, people. Right? LOL. Just wait till the first snow-I’ll be yelling at Jack Frost because we don’t start winter till Dec. 21. It doesn’t matter if we get Indian Summers in October. No, that doesn’t count….

Dropping a Line

Just wanted to quick drop a line (or two or three...)....

glitter-graphics.com

All Hubby had to do was walk in the house and startle me. I'd jump, I'd scream, I'd gasp and clutch my chest like I wanted to make sure I could catch my heart if it popped out, or all of the above. He would look at me and say that he doesn't mean to sneak up on me. He didn't have to try.

I could be anywhere in the house and I'd hear him. Squeak, creak. (Did I say our house is over a hundred years old? I guess I would squeak and creak, too, if I were a hundred years old.) I'd say, "I hear you." Sometimes I turn to look at him. He'd grin and shake his head and say,"I never meant to scare you before, you know." After a few more times of my turning to look at the source of the creaks, he'd continue to grin at me and say,"Now I will HAVE to sneak up on you!!" Aww, poor baby. I bet he enjoyed his ability to "not" sneak up on me and scare me at will. Now he just has to work at it. (Yeah, that means I hear the kids more, too. I am more aware of when they are coming or going, too. The "mom antenna" is more "tuned up" now....a HA!!)

I was sitting by the open window, reading (usually that will make me so engrossed in the book that I am totally unaware of what's going on around me unless I felt something vibrate, like someone "breaking some wind" on the couch. (Hubby says I wouldn't have to wait till I "felt" it; I would just have to look at the source of the sound and say, "Okay, who farted?" LOL.) I heard some kind of crunching sound outside. I look out the window and see Hubby riding Flare's bike, testing it. Her front tire was flat. She must have ran over some glass or something. The thought crossed her mind that maybe it was sabotaged, but Hubby got a new inner tire for it and said that it didn't look like it was cut or stabbed, so it must have been something she ran over. He also fixed her brakes a bit, too. Flare and I thank him for that. The brakes on her back tire will need to be replaced. Her bike is about four years old and it has had a lot of use over the last two years riding to it to school. (She carried her very heavy bike about five blocks and went to see if a friend could take her home. That was nice. Thanks again, to the friend who put her bike in the trunk and gave her a ride home.) Flare's arm is still sore from her bike-lifiting. The wheels wouldn't, well, wheel, very well being so flat.) She called home and this is what I heard:

Me: Hello?

Flare: Mom? It's Flare.

Me: Flare? Are you still at school? (I looked at my watch. It's about 4:30.)

Flare (what I could hear): ...bike...broke

Me: Your bike broke?

Flare (again, what I could hear): ...D, your interpreter...

Me, confused: Oh, it's D. I thought you were Flare.

Flare: Mom!! It's me, Flare.

Me, really confused: Flare? I thought you said you were D.

Flare: No, I'm at D's house....bike....

Me, the puzzle pieces falling into place: Oh, your bike is broke and you are at D's house. So she's going to give you a ride home?

Flare: Yes.

Me: Okay.

(Whew. Can you see how easily I can be easily confused when I was sure I was talking to one person and then I hear another name and it'd just throw me off? LOL)

I try to turn off my hearing aid at times and just see what I can hear with the CI. Voices are still very nasal-sounding, robotic. It isn't so high-pitched anymore, but it's not clear either. My hearing aid ear takes over for the phone use and speech recognition, though my audiogram says that my hearing aid ear had 32% speech recognition. But I can tell you that, at times, when the HA is blending with the CI, it "overpowers" the hearing aid ear. It picks up voices robotically and other sounds I wouldn't have picked up with the hearing aid alone. I was sitting on the loveseat in the living room and Flare was on the computer, singing. SINGING!! Did she do that all the time? Yes, she did. Whoa. I must have looked like a very calm, tuned-out Mom. LOL.

Onyx is a very noisy walker, too. I never paid attention to how much she drags her feet. I didn't even realize dogs could drag their feet. I can hear her lap up her water.

For the most part, the environmental sounds that I first heard are fading into the background (clock ticking, my breathing, even the "buzziness"). When I was outside, I thought I heard a mosquito buzz. Do they buzz? (I still don't get enough of a warning before getting bit, though. Sigh.

Since Angel's new school is on the outskirts of town now, during recess the kids come across garden snakes (garter snakes), toads, and caterpillars. Angel needed wanted a container to hold a caterpillar so she could keep one. She brought home a fuzzy brown and black caterpillar and named it "Tickles" because it tickles her as it walks across her hand with multiple sticky feet. The school yard is a nature wonderland. I hope there aren't anything dangerous lurking out there.

My next mapping is next Tuesday. Maybe this time I'll get some BEAM and/or autosensitivity programs mixed into the CI settings? These are different settings for the CI. So far all I have had to work with was ADRO with increased volume in each program. Baby steps....


A brief explanation of what these options are:

1. ADRO-for dynamic, changing environments

2. Whisper-soft and distant sounds

3. BEAM-focused listening in crowds

4. Autosensitivity-comfort in noise

Source: http://www.cochlearamericas.com/Products/22.asp

HUGS

Alvinated Moments with the New Map

glitter-graphics.com

Alvin and the Chipmunks

This, I think, is more like what some of the others have said about their activation. I had a lower volume in my first map. I’m glad I did, though. Weaning is good. I honestly don’t know how I would have done if it was so loud right away. I did have traces of heliumized voices during the past two weeks, but with the new map (increased volume) I really notice it.

After I had my CI (cochlear implant) adjusted for the new map, that night as I was doing the dishes, I could hear the water running. It sounded “normal.” I heard the dishes clinking. It sounded ‘NORMAL.” Cool.

When I was outside the other day, I heard the fire trucks going. I quickly turned off my HA to hear the sirens. It was a buzzy siren, but the high pitches were clear. I couldn’t tell you if I would have recognized the sirens if it weren’t for my HA, though.

I heard Onyx bark at me as I was standing at the sink. Her bark isn’t “normal,” but she still has the cutest yip. Sometimes when her water bowl is low or empty, she lets me know in this way. It’s one of the ways she communicates to me about her needs. While we don’t really encourage her to bark, she is a really quiet dog. When the doorbell or phone rings, she doesn’t move or bark. It’s no big deal to her. The only other time she barks (or should I say “yip’ because it’s not a real bark.) is when she wants to be with someone outside. If she’s inside the house, she’ll yip by the door. Or if she’s outside, she’ll yip because she wants to play. Other than that, we don’t usually get a peep out of her.

With the increased volume of the new map, voices are more heliumized than ever. (Where are they getting the balloons from? Just kidding.) I would turn off my HA (hearing aid) and listen. I watched TV. The voices are a bit buzzy and heliumized, but I tried to follow along with the closed captioning. I would make sense of the words as I read them, but I know I wouldn’t have interpreted it on my own. However, the sitcoms I watched always have laughter from a live audience (or is that always fake?). In any case, the laughter sounded “normal” to me!!! More and more sounds are easier to recognize.

The moleskin the audie put under the ear hook did help alleviate the soreness around the tip of my ear, but I worry about it getting dirty and hard to keep clean.

I worked out this morning. I jogged in place for 40 minutes followed by some weightlifting with 3 lb handbells to tone the arms. I really worked up a sweat, so I decided to take the CI off. Using only one ear, the HA ear, I noticed that things sounded “flatter.” What a difference!! It was like the CI actually is starting to blend with the HA ear.

I am really paranoid about washing the CI. I’ve seen the video, but I am still wary about getting too much water into the processor. I don’t want to wreck or hurt its performance.

On the home front, Angel got a free dictionary. It was given to all the third graders. I couldn’t believe that the longest word was this. Can you say that in one breath? Whoa. I bet I'd never pronounce it right. LOL.

The weather’s been on the cool side. Yesterday it poured and today was kind of a cool humid day. I don’t even know a weather term to describe a cool day with cool moisture in the air. It’s not misty, just an overall cool day.

Both girls seem to be keeping up their grades well. I had to email Angel’s teacher. Her teacher mentioned that she got “worked-up” a few times during recess. Angel LOVES recess. What kid doesn’t? I had to ask her what was up. Angel didn’t know. I wasn’t sure if “worked-up” meant hyper or emotional. Angel can be very hyper. Sometimes she gets issues with the neighbor kids-they get into a power struggle of sorts and if Angel got tired of doing things they wanted to do, she moves on and wants to play with someone else. It turns out now that Angel fell on her knees a few times playing tetherball and that was why she was “worked-up” (the emotional kind).

Flare’s high school has a website set up for parents to access the current gradebook. This is pretty common, I know, and I think this is a great way to maintain communication with kids. She’s doing really well. Sometimes I can’t believe this is the same girl who struggled in school a few years ago. I was actually worried that I entered her too early (she just turned 5 in kindergarten and just made the September 1 cutoff.) So I am proud of her accomplishments.

She’s also on the decorating committee for Homecoming. She is artistic, so I am sure she’ll have a few ideas.

Well, that’s all folks.

Family Update and New Mapping

glitter-graphics.com

Sorry, guys. I've been so behind. I'll try to do my blog rounds when I can. It seems lately that I"ve been playing catch up with my emails and not my blogging. I'm here.

I've been getting into a routine with Petey (my cochlear implant) along with some adjustments at home with the girls back in school.

I've also been enjoying the nice autumniod weather we've been having the past week. I'm half expecting the leaves to turn into fiery foilage, the kind that airbrushes the trees in reds, oranges, and yellows. I haven't spotted any squirrels "nesting" the nuts. The squirrels here are pretty nutty. Hubby had to set a trap in the attic. About a year or so ago, we had one living up there, tearing up cardboard boxes (for the glue that holds the boxes together). I guess that glue comes from tree sap or something. Hubby did trap one and let it go miles and miles away from home.

Then earlier this spring, another squirrel is trying to reside in our walls in the attic. We've been trying to keep it away from it. Flare actually got a video from her camera showing how mad that squirrel was at us because we were outside, preventing that squirrel from getting to the roof. Unfortunately, I cannot upload that video to show you that video. I am not sure if that video is just too long or what. I can watch it on the computer, but I can't upload it. Oh, well.

The girls are settled into school. Flare says that high school isn't as bad as she thought it would be. She's outgoing and making new friends. She plans on going to the Homecoming dance with a bunch of girls, just to have fun. Angel likes her new teacher and she has three new kids in her class (bringing the total to 13, with another new kid coming in October yet). With no deadlines, and pressure from my schoolwork anymore, I am much more calmer about helping Angel with her homework and memory work. She's had to memorize various Bible passages and hymn verses three times a week. She loves the new playground for recess.

Flare just had her school pictures taken last Thursday and now Angel gets hers this coming Thursday. It seems that picture day is scheduled earlier and earlier in the school year. I could remember it being in October all the time.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glitter Graphics

When we got to the facility for the map (Petey is still a baby, getting his second "routine" check...then in another two weeks, he gets his one-month check...growing in sounds), Hubby parked on the second level in the parking garage. A first!! So instead of going to the elevators to get to Level 2 and then entering the hospital, we just had to enter it, because we didn't have to get to Level 2. The last time, we just had to get on another elevator to get to the second floor, and then get to the third floor in a different elevator. But Hubby was just walking along, with me hanging on to his arm. I just figured that he just knew where he was going. Nope. I then told him; don’t we have to get to the third floor? He was like, oh, yeah, the parking ramp screwed him up. LOL. (Really, I am the BLONDE one, not him.)

Finally we get to the front desk and register. We only waited for a few minutes and there my audie was. She asked how things were and started the soft-comfortable-loud tone test. I got it louder, but it’s all on the same ADRO setting. Nothing fancy. She’s still weaning me into it. Every audie and center does things differently. I'd rather do it slowly than to just jump in and get overwhelmed.

I did tell her about how sore the tip of my ear was and she put some moleskin under the ear hook to see if that would be better. So far, so good. If nothing else, I figured I'd get a blister and then it'd toughen up.

She put me into a sound proof room to re-audiogram me. In the CI ear, unaided, I totally failed. I have no residual hearing in it whatsoever. I kind of suspected that because I tried putting my other hearing aid in it just to see if I could still her that “beep” when I first turned it on. Nope. It was gone. I know some still retain some residual hearing after a CI surgery, but not all. I’m okay with it. The CI is my ear. Good old’ Pete. :)

I did tell her I felt kind of lightheaded (more than usual, anyway. Winks. LOL) when she tried to test the CI ear unaided. It kind of pulsed, too. The good news is that in my unaided HA ear; the hearing level is the same. :) She didn’t test me on anything else. No words or sentences.

I told her how it’s hard for me to tell if I’m hearing the high pitches and she said that it would be hard if I never heard them before. I told her about how I used to play on my Gramma’s organ and hit the high notes on the left and that I couldn't hear the high notes on last six keys, but Gramma’s dog would be howling, “OOOOooooOOOOoooooo!!!” (Too bad we didn't have camcorders 30 years ago, that would have been a good "World's Funniest Video" clip to send.)

I kept having fits of laughter on the way home (poor Hubby must have thought his wife lost her mind) with the image of my Gramma's dog howling along with the organ music. (Gramma said his ears hurt, but it sure looked like he wanted to sing; he was just like a wolf howling at the moon.)

It wasn’t a really exciting map, but it’s louder and I will acclimate to that. I told her about how hard it was to tell that the volume was higher with each program, she said some people are more sensitive to volume increases, so she just made the volume increases more noticeable, but not too much. She doesn’t want to overdo it.



Yesterday, I turned off my HA and just tried to listen with the CI. I heard the phone ring!! I actually RECOGNIZED the ringing, though it's not the same sound I hear with the HA, but hey, it's progress!! Usually I hear something and the CI would just go "nuts" and I don't know what it's trying to interpret. It just goes haywire. Ding, ping-aling. What's that? Then when I see what it is, I'll listen more to make the brain recognize it better. But the phone!! It was cool!! Of course, I had to quick turn on the HA and answer the phone. Only it was a wasted effort. (Satellite TV anyone?)

So far, I'm getting clearer hollow sounds than before, not like the haywire sounds of before. :)

So now Petey and I will move on with this adjusted map and see where it takes us for the next two weeks...(I'll keep you posted on Progress Road, journey to sound.)

And Life Goes On...

Glitter Graphics

The past two weeks has been a whirlwind of activities besides the CI activation.

The girls had back-to-school orientations and shopping to do. We covered the supplies they needed. I got extra looseleaf/filler paper because they always use that up during the year and it’s nice to have that on hand rather than to run to the store for more (i.e., plan to get a ride or get Hubby to pick some up).

I made plans to get an interpreter for both orientations. Sometimes it’s nice not to have to work so hard to listen. I didn’t have the CI activated yet. I did feel a little funny, but most of the parents and the teachers all knew I was deaf. Angel was uncomfortable with my talking hands and didn’t want me to sign. I had to talk to her about it later (at home). I didn’t want to create a scene. The next night was Flare’s freshmen orientation and Angel did not bother me when I signed, but kept bugging me about how thirsty she was. Drove me nuts. LOL. The girl would make a great salesperson-very PERSISTENT!!

It was my first time in our new church. All the parents had ot gather in the church to hear the principal talk about the rules of the school. The kids never had lockers before so they had a few rules about that (no stickers or tapes) and only CLEAN gym shoes allowed on the new gym floor. The new church was very spacious and high-ceilinged. It was a tad too dark/shadowy for me, but the lighting was better overall (compared to the old church). Maybe it was just because it was in the evening and the sun was starting to set, too. The ceilings are wood-toned while the old church had white ceilings.

I got to meet Angel’s new teacher. She’s a few years out of college. It seems like all the professionals (dentists, doctors, audies, etc) I meet are getting younger and younger. (Makes me feel old. LOL). We scheduled a time for her to meet us at our house. I had a choice of scheduling it at the school or my house, but it was easier for me to just have the teacher meet at my house so I didn’t have to worry about transportation.

Flare’s orientation was confusing. The freshmen had some kind of a mock school day where they went to each class for ten minutes each. The parents had different 10 minute sessions, such as discussions about athletics, academics, and some kind of parent watch thing where any after school party must be monitored and a list of names can be used to call other parents about parties and such (parent network), discipline, and public relations.. I didn’t see Flare until the end. It was kind of frustrating because they split up the freshmen and the parents. Oh well. I would have been lost at sea if I didn’t have the interpreter there. We did have room numbers to find for each session, but I wanted to meet up with Flare again. Flare's homeroom teacher visited our home, too. He chatted with her before the meeting at the orientation started.

The girls are settled in at school now. I’m sure it’s pretty much a routine thing for them. I get them up in the morning (sometimes three times!!) before school. Hubby takes Angel to school and she gets a ride home from one of the parents. Flare rides her bike to school with two other neighbor boys. When it gets colder out, Hubby will take her to school, too.

As far as updates with the CI (cochlear implant), I don’t have new things to report. I don’t notice much with my hearing aid (HA) on, but when I turn it off once in a while, I’ll try to listen for things. I heard the clock ticking. It was muted and high-pitched, but I knew it was the clock. Voices are becoming quite ducky (Daffy Duck). I try to muddle through the “Heliumite” language, I can see the kids’ mouths move, but it isn’t clear sound yet. For now, they make great "heliumoids." It still buzzes and sounds like my hearing aid whistling. I’ve been using P2 more now. P1 seems too soft. The programs that are set on the CI aren’t draining the battery so much. I can put a recharged battery in at 6 in the morning and take it off at 10:30 at night and there’s still juice in it yet. I did try P3. The volume is very subtle and it’s hard to really notice the difference in volume. If I use P4 long enough, I feel a funny “spark” or electric shock (I am not sure how to describe it). It’s uncomfortable.

Yesterday we took a 30-minute trip out of town to pick up half a pig Hubby ordered. It was a nice drive. (It was hot yesterday!!) Since I always used to take this route to work, I couldn’t believe how many wind turbines have been put up in the last four years. It was weird seeing them scattered all over. It was the first time I’ve seen so many of them in one area, but they were unusually immobile. The big thee-bladed propellers didn't move at all.

Then, this morning, Hubby dropped us off at church. It was a little weird for me. It’s new. I am so used to having two rows of pews and now it’s four rows (or is it five?). The pews are arranged in a kind of an arc. Different. If you turn around and look at the top wall, you can see the huge organ pipes. They still haven’t gotten all the stained glass from the old church yet so there are a few clear panes of glass in the windows waiting to be replaced.

It still has a “new” smell in the walls and carpeting.

There are no curbs to the church. I kept looking for one so I can make a step, but it was all ramped-like. That’s good for me because then I don’t have to look for the curb. :)

Have a great Labor weekend, all!!

HUGS.

Oh, before I forget, Flare has been showing me her potential for poetic "flair." She's shown me about four poems that she wrote. Hmm. wonder where she gets that from?.....;)

It's Not Fair

School Bus

We all have those moments when we feel like screaming, “It’s not fair.” Life isn’t fair. You gotta take the lumps and deal with them.

As a child you try to get your parent to change their mind about something. “It’s not fair!!” Maybe it’s about sibling rivalry.

"No fair. She gets to stay up longer than I do!!” or maybe it’s about sleeping over at Gramma’s house. “She went last time. Isn’t it MY turn? No fair.”

You hear about it in school, in the work place, or any place out in the world. There’s rivalry, “me first”, and then there’s the “privileged”. It’s a part of life. Some people get their way.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Isn’t that what they always say? Life is not fair, you just have to move on. Nothing gets handed to you on a silver plate.

Since my oldest was going to go to high school in the fall, I thought I’d see if she could get school bus service.

I tried this two years ago, but I was told that it was not “hazardous” enough. There weren’t any major highways for the kids to cross on the way to school. They walk eight blocks to school. It’s only a 10 minute walk. That’s not too bad.

The high school is about a 45 minute walk from our house. On top of that, a new church and school is being built on the outskirts of town. The old one will be closed at the end of the school year. My youngest would need transportation to get to the new school.

I called the local school bus. (Lucky for me, I got to talk to women who I could understand most of the time.) I was given another number to call. I describe my dilemma. I am legally blind. I can’t drive my kids to school. How are they going to get there?

The conversation went like this:

Person on phone: Where do you live?

Me: Right in town.

(Most school buses are provided for kids who live in the country.)

P: Do your children have a special need?

Me: No.

P: We can’t help you.

M: Even if the parent has disabilities? Only if the child has a special need? Is that fair?

P: I am sorry. I do understand. You could consider city bus transit or maybe the school can help you?

M: I've already told the school about the situation. Haven't heard anything. Well, thanks for your time.

(I was curt but not overly mean as I hung up the phone. I know it wasn’t her fault. It was just the system.)

City transit? Uh, sorry. Call me judg”mental”, but I don’t like the idea of having my kids wait an hour and a half while transferring on two different bus routes in the morning and afternoon. Too time-consuming. Maybe I am overprotective, too. Maybe I watch too many shows like Law and Order. I don't want them standing at a bus stop at 6 in the morning and getting home at 5:30 p.m.

The school? Like I said, I talked with a few teachers about it. I wanted to see if anyone would be happy to carpool, to pick the girls up for me and take them home from school. I'd be happy to pay for the gas. I haven't heard anything. I just want to take care of it early. Get a head start on it so I don't worry about it.

I'm not looking for a free ride. I am willing to pay for the bussing services if I have to. I don't drive. I don't have a car payment, car insurance costs, car maintenance, or have to fill up my gas tank. That money can go towards transportation.

We need to change something. How many parents with disabilities (any kind-cancer, paraplegic, blind, etc) would like to be able to have school bus service for their kids? What does it take to wake them up? A petition? This is ridiculous. Something has to be done.

I'll Be Back

from Glitter Graphics

School work in session...I am trying to get the hang of getting back into the swing of things. Meanwhile, I will still be posting The Daily Threes each and every day. Any updates will be posted there. Some posts will be longer than others. Some days I may have a lot to talk about, some days just a small thing may light up my day. I am still here. I just want to cut some corners. Thanks for stopping by.