@Lorraine Oh my God I am so sorry. I had a compression fracture three years ago and that was the most pain I have ever experienced in my life and I live in fear of it happening again so you absolutely have nice empathy and I hope the exercise helps it sometimes does for me,so I hope it definitely makes things better.

The stew has been in the crockpot for a couple of hours now and is starting to smell really good. A mocha pecan cake just went into the oven so things will start to smell even better here shortly. I will make beer bread a little bit later. I went outside for a while with Callisto to throw the ball and it is nice to be back inside my toasty warm, good smelling house.

Someone asked me today why I don't ever travel with sighted people when I take vacation and I thought about it and I think it's because sighted people have a tendency to ... get in my way. Meaning ok so if I walk into a room and someone is in the middle of the floor, the sighted person sees the other person on the floor and will reach out and grab me to stop me from stepping on them, rather than allowing me to take about 3 seconds longer to communicate, have my dog tell me and stop i realize that being deafblind means I'm slower, I get information about 2-3 seconds behind sighted people. And it's like they can't help themselves and they have to use those extra seconds to grab/direct/ interrupt me whereas if they just left me alone I would take care of it, just slower. Then many of those same people feel put upon/burdened/annoyed because they seem to take upon themselves the expectation that they're going to have to do stuff for me. Like walk out with my dog when we go for a potty break or walk me to the hotel restaurant or whatever even though I do those things myself and don't usually ask. I would rather go myself. And honestly every time I've travelled with a sighted friend there is always an issue like this along the trip and I just find it easier and less stressful to go with just my dog. Yes I'm going to get lost, i might get myself into some interesting situations. I may not understand whats going on all the time or be confused because... yes deafblind, I'm going to miss stuff. But i am also not anybody's project, or responsibility. I can have a relaxed time with my dog, she will tell me what I need to know. It isn't a race, I don't need to be the fastest, just the safest. So I guess thats why I love meeting folks in different places but I really would prefer to travel there by myself.