Alan’s Army Update #76
Greetings once again from an airport overseas - this time Charles De Gaulle in Paris (the land of edible snails and Bordeaux) en route to Nuremberg (the land of beer and chocolate.) As usual, my apologies that I have not written sooner. I had hoped that this message would have come from Alan himself but the new text-to-speech software has a very steep learning curve and it may be some time yet before he can work in email. Unfortunately my work is currently beyond insanely busy and recent free time was entirely consumed by preparations for our club’s big Pro/Am Disc Golf tournament last weekend.
Alan’s MRI I mentioned last time did come back completely clear – no reoccurrence! Let’s hope that remains the same report for a long, long, time.The other report we were waiting on finally came back from the NJ Commission for the Blind (weeks later as they didn’t show up for the original appointment) and it was rather non-informative. Basically they said that Alan is a bright guy who did well in his two week assessment and would probably get quite a bit out of their 16 week live-in program. Like I said, not-so-informative. So Alan is thinking about entering that program sometime in October after we get back from the United States Disc Golf Championships in Rock Hill, SC in early October. It will be very strange for us to have him be gone M-F each week for that long. He did enjoy his sessions at the commission during his two-week stint and one follow-on is that he is currently having a Braille lesson at home about once a week.
In other news, Ginny turned 50 last month and I now have my annual 2.5 month period of calling her the old lady until my own birthday comes around and I join her. Generally she looks about 10+ years younger than her age and I look 10+ years older, so who am I kidding? We got her a new car (well it’s a year old, but new to us) for her birthday and Amber will now drive the Taurus Sedan instead of Alan’s pickup truck which she really wasn’t in to. We have now faced the fact that Alan won’t be driving again so his pickup is up for sale.
Our long-time friend Casey Santye passed away in August after her fight with ALS. We ask that you pray for her husband Chip and their kids Erin, Tim, and Lauren. Also health prayers for Ginny’s dad Mait who will be having shoulder surgery in November and my friend Leonard who will be having back surgery in October.
OK, back to Alan and his new skills - I ordered a Braille label-maker (like the old squeeze-the-handle Dymo label embosser for you people who are old enough to have any idea what I’m talking about) and it will open up a whole new level of living for him when we can label things for him like books-on-tape, CDs, gear shifts, cereal boxes, soup cans, cats, juice cartons, etc. etc. OK, just kidding on the gear shifts, but we could shave the top of the cat’s heads and apply the label . . . well OK, maybe not the cats either. But between Alan’s needs, and Amber’s and my tendencies to be a bit OCD - we’re probably going to need a whole lot of tape for that labeler.
So, Alan is well and slowly learning new skills.
BTW - today is Dan Homan (Alan and Amber’s godfather - Uncle Ho’s) birthday so a shout out to him - Arrggh me matey! Happy Birthday ya old scalywag landlubber! (It’s also “Speak like a Pirate” day today.)
Enough for now, although it is only 10AM here, my body thinks it is 4AM, and I’ve been traveling for 13.5 hours, so I’m going to explore the terminal and hopefully find myself some garlic-smothered garden critters and a nice glass of that Bordeaux. Gee, I wonder if they’ll serve me if I order speaking like a pirate.
Until next time, thanks for your time and thoughts and prayers - God bless.
Bonjour!
Andrew