Heading home...........

Hi There............ I just wanted to give you an up date on us................. Just to let you all know that we made it home safe and sound! After we were dropped off at the airport, Phoebe and I were guided to a bulkhead seat on the Plane. I got Phoebe all settled down in front of my feet, under the seat in front of me. I kept reassuring her it was okay to be there. Soon we were on the runway, taking off. we were heading for the sky. The next thing I knew, Phoebe was clawing at the floor...since she was so light, she was sliding on the floor!! I helped her to get back to where she was, and settle down, soon the plane leveled out.. It was smoothe sailing after that. Poor thing! we made it to Minneapolis a little behind schedule. So Phoebe and I were hurried off to the next plane heading to Portland Oregon.The first thing we did, was shown to our seat.This time, It wound up being in the center of the plane right next to the window. Immediately I was having trouble trying to get Phoebe under that seat. It wasn't long before my seatmate showed up to be seated. Right about then, the stewardess noticed we were having some issues. It was not long before Phoebe and I were moved to a bulkhead seat. We were located right behind the first class section. On this particular plane, the door was found behind me. The plane was still being loaded. It was not long when there were this group of about 50 grade school children about 9 0r 10 years old, loaded on the plane.They were accompanied by several adults. Apparently they were from Paris France and did not speak English very well. I did not think anything of it. They were cute, well behaved kids.It was not long after we took off that they fell asleep..We did not hardly hear a peep out of them.On this particular flight Phoebe and I were ready. I had my foot placed at her bottom to help with the sliding. just in case..only, this plane did not have such a sharp heading. Phoebe was a bit more nervous as she was shaking quit a bit throughout the trip. I think she remembered sliding on that previous flight, she was waiting for it to start again. I kept talking to her, trying to help her feel more secure with my voice and petting her. Eventually she quit shaking and went to sleep. After almost 4 hours we finally landed in Portland Oregon. It was about 7 p.m.We began to unload. First, the first class, then, bit later, it was our turn to get off. I got my pack on and Phoebe all ready to go up the ramp. Phoebe was not all that excited about walking up that ramp with loud luggages, baby strollers and wheel chairs being wheeled up those metal tunnels. Lots of vibrations and strange noises.We were doing fine. It was not long before we were at the top, ready to head towards the security area.All of a sudden we came around a corner....there they were..............there were a million kids and parents teachers screaming holding up welcome posters and signs to welcome those 50 kids that were on the plane, now standing,.................... right behind me! You would have been so proud of Phoebe. I know I was. Here we were walking in to a wall of people, soon, some started to part away to allow us through, Phoebe held her head up high..I was encouraging her to go on, along the way.. she was listening to me....not those screaming voices, but heard mine.She would have done great on a dragon boat listening for the caller, but any way, I am getting off track here.The point of it is...she was so good!!I felt good! Normally I hate these moments..Hate it ....... hate it........ hate it!! But this time I was not alone..It was like I had someone holding my hand.. I did... it was Phoebe's. What a feeling! It was another glimps of what my life could be like,, if I allowed it.It was pretty cool!!
Now that we are home... I have found it to be rewarding to write on my Blog.
I am going to make an honest effort to keep it up.
Bon/Mom

Here we were training at the Oakland University.

I thought this tree was pretty.

You will notice I am actually wearing shorts!!

The temperature got up in the 80 's.

This morning we were here.


However.........

When we were training in the afternoon, the biggest black cloud

came, and ended our work for the day!

The rain came down in buckets!!

Made me home sick for Portland!

Soon, lightning came , by then we were back at the campus.

Since we got in early, (and stopped raining for now..) I am finally going over to the mall across the street!

I am getting excited about heading home.

I have been wearing these clothes over and over...

It is time for a change!!

So off to the mall I go!

Check in tomorrow and see what I came up with!

Later,

Bon/Mom

A day in Rochester Park..................

Hello.........
here we are in Rochester Park.
We were mostly here to experience distractions.

Beleive you me....

there were Plenty!!

We had squirrels, ducks, strange dogs of all kinds, kids on noisy riding toys, mothers with strollers,
and more.

At first, I just knew I was in for a battle..

Did you know that Poodles were originally used for retreiving fowl?


Waaaaayy back then............................
That was why they used to trim the hair off the top of the poodle so that the dog would not be cold when in the water. The hair was left on the belly side, to keep warm!

I did not know that , but,
some where along the line .
somebody told ...........Phoebe!

She was just shaking like a leaf, she was so excited!!

I just thought, oh no!!

Thank good ness my trainer came over to me and put one of those "gentle"trainers on her.
It was a cord of some type that went around her nose and hooked to the leash.
It was kind of the same principle as a horse bit in it's mouth.
Only this just kept her head under control to help keep her in focus!

I was surprised...

It worked!

So we had a pretty good day working out some of the kinks , learning more about each other.





This next picture was kind of an accident!
Somehow I managed to screw up the settings on my camera!!
I have a whole day of lots of pictures, that match!!

Matrix style!

I thought it looked kind of cool!!
Fortuantely One of my new freinds knows computers and helped me out, or I would have been stuck with this style the rest of my stay!~
Just wanted to keep you posted.


Today was a quiet day,
as we lost our graduate students.Their time was up.

It was kind of hard to see them go.. we had gotten pretty close these last few weeks.

We all exchanged addresses to keep in touch.
Making plans to get together, soon.

These are memories for a lifetime.

Phoebe and I are ready to try it in the real world.
I hope you all will bare with us as we figure this relationship out.
I am told it could take months.

So...

tune in tomorrow and see what happens.......

next!


Bon/Mom

Detroit......................

Hi!

Just wanted to let you all know, there is not a picture today.........
we went to Detroit to train in the city.

What a huge disapointment!!

It made me appreciate the city of Portland all the more!
Detroit was almost a ghost
town. This is the downtown area that we went to. All the buildings were a blah color.
Nothing fancy or out of the ordinary. Okay, a couple were, but in general... It sucked!

There was not a Starbucks to be found!
I am told that have them here, just not there, Downtown Detroit!
It was raining and in gereral pretty crappy.
Phoebe and I did encounter a few nice puddles.
The way she handled one was...
she walked around it and guided me right thru it!!

Cute!

Ha!!


NOT!

The next puddle we BOTH went around it!!

She is getting it figured out. The main difference is that I am on to her!

We will work it out, together.

We had another class working with our Breeze, the G P S thing we got.
Tonight after dinner, we will learn how to brush their teeth!!

The dog's teeth that is!

I am hoping it gets over in time so some of us can go over to the Mall across the street...

we will see.

Okay.....

good bye for now

Bon/Mom

Hi, wanted to keep you updated............

Yesterday, Sunday was ouer dfirst time vto leave the dog behind in our room.

We were not allowed to to be separated from our dog for the first ten days.
Since we were in training, we were not allowed to take our dog off campus either.
So, Sunday was the first time to go anywhere!
There were 4 of us that decided to get together with our canes to head down to the nearest Walgrens, about a mile up the road.

We walked alongside on a wide sidewalk to the store.
I guess we must have made an impression on some of the drivers.
Maybe they don't see a group of blind people walking together very often.

I don't know,
Because about half way down the road, all of a sudden we heard this loud, long screeeeeechhhh!!
Then a loud BANG! then another bang!!

There was a three car accident right along side of us in the next lane over!
It was a little more then a fender bender, as the front bumper fell of and the hood on top of the pick-up folded in half, radiator fluid all over. bits and peices scattered on the road, while the three vehicles rolled towards the maridian lane in the middle.
Fortuanately, nobody was hurt.

But, believe me when I say all four of us jumped when we heard that first bang!

We got out of there in a hurry!!

That woke us up!

We got what we went for anfd got right back to the m center!

Today, we woke up to nasty rainy weather.
Our training today consisted of working in a grocery store and this aftwernoon we wen t to a huge mall. We tried out escelators. I have decided in the future, to avoid it if possible.
I would be so easy to get Phoebe's toes caught in the grating.
I don't want to take that chance.

We also had another class with the