macular degeneration, macular, diagnosis Beast of Burden – My Macular Degeneration Journey/Journal

Beast of Burden

Some of you may recognize the title as the title of a Rolling Stones song Beast of Burden. Can’t help it, I love music!

This is going to be odds and ends. Hopefully a theme will develop. Then again, maybe not!

I just ordered a rolling cart. I took my CCTV and some work materials and a full-size iPad and my purse with several low vision toys in it across the parking lot to the other school building today. I carried them all and nearly broke my back.

I don’t know if anyone else out there has this problem, but I have acquired a lot of stuff and it is heavy!

Apparently, that is something they don’t tell you in visually impaired school: having all of these toys can turn you into a pack mule!

Another thing they don’t tell you is what to do with all the cords. In addition to all of the usual things that need to be plugged in I now have a CCTV and a reader and a Books for the Blind player and an extra tablet and the list goes on.

Not only do you have all of these electronic toys that need cords, but they need the correct cord. The smart phone wants nothing to do with the iPad charger and the iPad wants nothing to do with the reader charger, etc. You get my point? All the more fun for a disorganized, visually impaired lady.

Of course, life would be a lot nastier without my toys. I just used my iPad to look up a Talking Book to play in my cute little player. I found the new Jeffery Deaver novel available to borrow for free. That is the same novel I just saw available in hardcover only for something like $16. Not sure how many Lincoln Rhymes fans get Talking Books so I might have to wait a bit. However, it will probably be less time than I would have to wait for it to come out in paperback. I am cheap that way.

I am wondering how long you can keep these tapes. I am also wondering how much listening to audiobooks some visually impaired folks do. The order form was old-school, paper to complete with a – gasp – pen. The thing of it is, it was three columns wide and maybe 20 lines deep, front and back! If your average audio book is something like 12 hours, that is a whole lot of listening.

I just ordered one. I love to ‘read’ but I am not good at sitting that long. I am also trying to stay involved and get back to work full-time. AND I want to check out the BARD offerings. I got the acceptance very quickly but have not gotten around to setting up my account. I seem to be very busy these days – doing visually impaired stuff; ya know?

Just never realized this visually impaired business could be so demanding! Aha! A theme!?

Next: BOOKS AND MORE BOOKS

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