October 22 Disabilities Awareness Item

Dear RantWoman and RantWoman’s mass eldering list:
Thanks, (RantWoman) for the idea of the Service Python (or gecko, etc.). I just got this from my brother and hope all will enjoy it. The picture makes it especially funny, but the text does a good job of explaining as well. Enjoy.

Friend who still gets to get by without a nom de blog.

WALKING THE DOG
Reportedly, a woman was flying from Seattle to San Francisco.
Unexpectedly, the plane was diverted to Sacramento along the way. The flight attendant explained that there would be a delay, and if the passengers wanted to get off the aircraft the plane would re-board in 50 minutes..

Everybody got off the plane except one lady who was blind.

A man had noticed her as he walked by and could tell the lady was blind because her guide dog lay quietly underneath the seats in front of her throughout the entire flight..

He could also tell she had flown this very flight before because the pilot approached her, and calling her by name, said, "Kathy, we are in Sacramento for almost an hour. Would you like to get off and stretch your legs?"

The blind lady said,"No thanks, but maybe Buddy would like to stretch his legs."
Picture this: All the people in the gate area came to a complete standstill when they looked up and saw the pilot walk off the plane with a guide dog for the blind!

Even worse, the pilot was wearing sunglasses !

People scattered.

They not only tried to change planes, But they were trying to change airlines!

True story.....
Have a great day and remember.....
THINGS AREN'T ALWAYS AS THEY APPEAR.
A DAY WITHOUT LAUGHTER IS A DAY WASTED.

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Warning: RantWoman humor impairment alert.

RantWoman read the message the first time without looking at the picture. Then RantWoman remembered that this story goes around the internet at least a couple times every year and went back to look at the picture after she had already dispatched a response below.

This text is accompanied by a picture of the pilot in the sunglasses with a dog in a harness. RantWoman can guess why the picture did not survive RantWoman’s reply and forward efforts. RantWoman does not feel called to fuss about it.

If the pilot knows the passenger well enough to call her by name and to have her entrust her guide dog to him, naively I would think the pilot MIGHT know that it is most appropriate for him to use the leash rather than the harness; that MIGHT cut down on confusion. RantWoman has learned that ability to read details like this can never be assumed but RantWoman would not mind if people could just bring themselves just to treat the pilot like a human being and ask.


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Dear Friend….

First, thank you. This item qualifies. Remember my offer to take the day off--or at least try not to ramble at too great length in reply if someone sends disability-related content before I get around to sending anything out. This item goes around the internet a couple times a year but it definitely qualifies. I do though have a couple hopefully enjoyable items in queue including more than one way to jump up and down about service dog issues.

The service python and service gecko are not original; Friends are behind both of those. Nor actually are the service chickens which someone from a local agency told me about in connection with a previous job. Then there is the 4-foot mastiff named Puppy from my building, but he actually falls under the housing law part of the service dog item and does not, for instance, go to church.

As for blind people operating large moving vehicles, two items:
--The National Federation of the Blind, the self-proclaimed Voice of ...Blind, has been connected for decades to a project that is partly robotics, partly optical processing that theoretically could allow blind people to drive. Driving, cough, is not a priority for me although if the price were low enough to help a lot of seniors with unacknowledged but serious marginal vision issues....

--My friend who I read a lot of Russian history and undergraduate bluebooks for in grad school for a long time dated a guy who drove for the campus bus system. My friend told me that one day her boyfriend let her drive the bus, straight, no turns for a substantial stretch in the parking lot out at the bus barn. I told her I was not sure I wanted to know that and did not think to ask what her Seeing Eye dog was doing at the time.

As for things not always being what they appear, I feel another rant coming on so I think it best to stop for now.

In the Light.

(RantWoman)