Over, Under, Through

If you live in San Francisco long enough, you’ll forget this is a very strange place.  I can tell you without any equivocation that a guy walking with a white tipped cane is absolutely, like, the ninth most interesting thing you’ll see in my neighborhood.  On my walk to work, there’s a placard outside a… let’s call it a variety store… proudly proclaiming, “We Buy Porn!”  Around the corner, at the entrance to the Castro MUNI stop, the homeless guy by the bus shelter calls out, “Kidney?  Harvest your kidney?  Sir, may I harvest your kidney?”  What I’m saying is that when the mannequin in the front window of the Goodwill store is dressed with a tuxedo top and a pink chiffon ballerina dress bottom, seeing me making my way around a construction pylon with a cup of coffee in one hand and a cane in the other is just not goig to be on your radar.

I also think San Francisco must be the birthplace of Competitive Leisure, the idea that you can’t just have fun.  You have to have more fun than everyone else, or it doesn’t count.  It means if you come to work on Monday and someone asks you… with that slight note of a challenge in their voice, “So… Continue reading “Over, Under, Through”

Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Orange, Purple, Brown, Black

The most surprising part about learning to navigate the world with very little sight is discovering how much of the heavy lifting has already been done, at least when it comes to making the world at least somewhat manageable. This is having a direct impact on my plans for international travel, not to mention my life in general.

Take stairs, for example.  Missing a step is a very easy mistake when you can’t see the bottom of a staircase, so new staircases built to code today are designed so at the bottom, the rail levels out to be parallel with the floor at exactly the point where the last step ends.  That way, you know you’re on level ground.

Here’s another one: I never noticed the little nubbin on the number “5” key on Continue reading “Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Orange, Purple, Brown, Black”

This Blog Is Now Gluten Free

 

This is how to cross the street.

If you’re standing on the right side of an intersection, wait until a car on your left has passed fully through that intersection, which confirms a green light, rather than just a left turn only signal for cars coming towards you.  If you’re on the left side of an intersection, wait until an oncoming car passes through that intersection, again confirming a green light, but in this case signifying that cars on your right won’t turn into your path, which would happen if there was just a left turn signal rather than a green light. As far as bicycles and the occasional Prius are concerned, do the best you can.  Never assume you have a green light just because another pedestrian is walking into traffic

I should mention this is how to cross the street when you can’t see where you’re going.

Hi. My name is Michael. I’m visually impaired, and there’s a good chance that someday I’ll be completely blind.

That’s the truth and I can’t change it.

Ah, the blog. I think we all know that one of the most pressing issues of our Continue reading “This Blog Is Now Gluten Free”

This is a test

This is a test of the emergency blogcast system.  This is only a test.  If this were an actual post, you would be vastly more informed, entertained or otherwise amused than you are at the moment.  Please stay tuned for actual content.  This has been a test of the emergency blogcast system.