Hot July news
Good morning everyone,
Well I saw Graham Monday evening and he seemed to be both up and down. He was down because he is back in bed a lot. That is always hard for him as it takes away any of his ability to do anything at all for himself. He can barely even stretch out his arms and back without help when he is lying down. Plus it means his neck gets tired being in one position for 4 hours, and then being turned and in the same position on the other side for 4 hours. He will get up for a couple of hours a day, but the pink dodgy skin in a couple of places keeps them enforcing bedrest.
However the up part is that he had been on a very interesting outing all day the previous Thursday. They took all the wheelchair folks in a special bus on a long road trip to [Nottingham?] where they went to a Motability display of all sorts of things to help people who need help. there were all these different types of wheel chairs and electric vehicles, various gloves, and other gadgets to help people who need this sort of help. He found the bus ride a bit noisy and during the ride they found out the initial sketchy news about the bombs in London. He hung around with another guy in a wheelchair at the event and a carer. They got some take away food which was at least different! It was a very long day out -- about 8 hours. He found it very interesting to see all the various items that have been invented. He was disappointed that there was nothing about computers as he was hoping to see what kinds of gadgets they had for those. Still it was a day out! His first since he fell over 6 months ago.
We had a long talk about his worldly goods. Of course it is a wrench for him to think of all his 'stuff' being packed up and thinking he will never see it again. We talked at length about getting a storage facility where everything can be kept together for a reasonable sum of money and help out those wonderful folks of you who are doing all this packing and need more space to pack more. I told him you felt it is important to get things packed up so you can move him at the drop of a hat. If an apartment arises it will be much easier if his things are in storage and he can move into the new place unencumbered for the time being. I told him you are labelling everything carefully and we think you have a map of the place to say where things came from as well. Most important is just saying what is in the boxes. Though it is hard for him, I believe he has accepted that getting a storage facility is a good idea. I said at least he would have all his things in one place rather than a few boxes here and another few there without knowing who has what. Please wait for a final 'yes' from him before going ahead -- I expect that will come this week -- probably from Airasa or through and MP3 message from Graham himself. When I see him next, if he has not made the final decision, I will encourage him to take the plunge. It is the best way of dealing with everything now. I said then one box at a time can be brought to him in his new place for him to make decisions about.
He is very much looking forward to the visit from Pastor Steve on Saturday and possibly on Sunday. I will take Steve to and from the hospital and he will stay at Airasa's place. It is really nice for Graham to have this to look forward to. He may well make the decision about his things then, as he is going to discuss some of his books being in the church library and I am sure Steve will get Graham to agree to have everything put into storage as the best solution for now.
WE have had incredibly hot weather for England the past week or so. The hottest summer I can remember since moving here 24 years ago!
Of course we have also had the very unfortunate negative terrorist bombings in London and if you are following the news you will know that some of the terrorists came from Leeds. It appears they have blown themselves up in their desire to bring terror. And, although it is a terrible thing and people are very affected by it, there is a wonderful spirit in the British people that is summed up by this statement made by someone: 'We had the Blitz in WWII, we had the IRA -- nice try terrorists, but no cigar -- let's have a nice cuppa tea!'
A friend of mine also sent this to me:
I was watching a documentry on WWII years back. An aged American pilot reminisced. The scene was recreated in which a pilot was dangling by parachute straps from a tree. A Brit housewife runs out with a cup served on a saucer to hand the man—who is swearing, saying that a step ladder and a knife would be much more useful. The lady says, "There, there. My girl is going across the street to borrow a ladder. But first a cup of tea. It will be all right."
So you can see, the Brits are really together about these things. London was open virtually the next day. Leeds has had quite a lot of stuff happening around the houses of the suspected terrorists. In fact it even came right home to me -- as I was leaving yesterday there were two large mini-buses and an ambulance keeping me in momentarily -- 26 residents from a sister care home on Burley Road had to be evacuated to our care home -- and one of the staff said to me 'chef had to whip up 26 extra meals and he did it in half an hour!!' We have vigils on Thursday at noon and at 6 p.m. for the victims of the bombings. My own Dean of my faculty was in London and was 20 seconds away from the bus that blew up -- she had just entered the building having literally just walked past the bus.
I personally would like to thank all of you who wrote to me after the bombings to extend your sympathy and kindness. The Launch of the Walk for Peace 2005 on Sunday was all the more poignant after the events of the previous Thursday.
May peace prevail. May we educate our youths so that they can get along with each other and not feel the need to take such drastic steps to be heard. May we learn to take care of all the people of the world with social justice for all.
Oops, slipped onto my soap box there for a moment.
Enough from me. I will take photos when Steve visits.
WE are hoping that Graham may be moved by the end of the summer. It will be wonderful if he can be near all of you so you can visit him and help him to recover in spirit even if his body will not recover any more. I hold out hope that he will still improve but if he ends up in his current state, that is something we can all live with.
Love and peace to you all,
Linda
Well I saw Graham Monday evening and he seemed to be both up and down. He was down because he is back in bed a lot. That is always hard for him as it takes away any of his ability to do anything at all for himself. He can barely even stretch out his arms and back without help when he is lying down. Plus it means his neck gets tired being in one position for 4 hours, and then being turned and in the same position on the other side for 4 hours. He will get up for a couple of hours a day, but the pink dodgy skin in a couple of places keeps them enforcing bedrest.
However the up part is that he had been on a very interesting outing all day the previous Thursday. They took all the wheelchair folks in a special bus on a long road trip to [Nottingham?] where they went to a Motability display of all sorts of things to help people who need help. there were all these different types of wheel chairs and electric vehicles, various gloves, and other gadgets to help people who need this sort of help. He found the bus ride a bit noisy and during the ride they found out the initial sketchy news about the bombs in London. He hung around with another guy in a wheelchair at the event and a carer. They got some take away food which was at least different! It was a very long day out -- about 8 hours. He found it very interesting to see all the various items that have been invented. He was disappointed that there was nothing about computers as he was hoping to see what kinds of gadgets they had for those. Still it was a day out! His first since he fell over 6 months ago.
We had a long talk about his worldly goods. Of course it is a wrench for him to think of all his 'stuff' being packed up and thinking he will never see it again. We talked at length about getting a storage facility where everything can be kept together for a reasonable sum of money and help out those wonderful folks of you who are doing all this packing and need more space to pack more. I told him you felt it is important to get things packed up so you can move him at the drop of a hat. If an apartment arises it will be much easier if his things are in storage and he can move into the new place unencumbered for the time being. I told him you are labelling everything carefully and we think you have a map of the place to say where things came from as well. Most important is just saying what is in the boxes. Though it is hard for him, I believe he has accepted that getting a storage facility is a good idea. I said at least he would have all his things in one place rather than a few boxes here and another few there without knowing who has what. Please wait for a final 'yes' from him before going ahead -- I expect that will come this week -- probably from Airasa or through and MP3 message from Graham himself. When I see him next, if he has not made the final decision, I will encourage him to take the plunge. It is the best way of dealing with everything now. I said then one box at a time can be brought to him in his new place for him to make decisions about.
He is very much looking forward to the visit from Pastor Steve on Saturday and possibly on Sunday. I will take Steve to and from the hospital and he will stay at Airasa's place. It is really nice for Graham to have this to look forward to. He may well make the decision about his things then, as he is going to discuss some of his books being in the church library and I am sure Steve will get Graham to agree to have everything put into storage as the best solution for now.
WE have had incredibly hot weather for England the past week or so. The hottest summer I can remember since moving here 24 years ago!
Of course we have also had the very unfortunate negative terrorist bombings in London and if you are following the news you will know that some of the terrorists came from Leeds. It appears they have blown themselves up in their desire to bring terror. And, although it is a terrible thing and people are very affected by it, there is a wonderful spirit in the British people that is summed up by this statement made by someone: 'We had the Blitz in WWII, we had the IRA -- nice try terrorists, but no cigar -- let's have a nice cuppa tea!'
A friend of mine also sent this to me:
I was watching a documentry on WWII years back. An aged American pilot reminisced. The scene was recreated in which a pilot was dangling by parachute straps from a tree. A Brit housewife runs out with a cup served on a saucer to hand the man—who is swearing, saying that a step ladder and a knife would be much more useful. The lady says, "There, there. My girl is going across the street to borrow a ladder. But first a cup of tea. It will be all right."
So you can see, the Brits are really together about these things. London was open virtually the next day. Leeds has had quite a lot of stuff happening around the houses of the suspected terrorists. In fact it even came right home to me -- as I was leaving yesterday there were two large mini-buses and an ambulance keeping me in momentarily -- 26 residents from a sister care home on Burley Road had to be evacuated to our care home -- and one of the staff said to me 'chef had to whip up 26 extra meals and he did it in half an hour!!' We have vigils on Thursday at noon and at 6 p.m. for the victims of the bombings. My own Dean of my faculty was in London and was 20 seconds away from the bus that blew up -- she had just entered the building having literally just walked past the bus.
I personally would like to thank all of you who wrote to me after the bombings to extend your sympathy and kindness. The Launch of the Walk for Peace 2005 on Sunday was all the more poignant after the events of the previous Thursday.
May peace prevail. May we educate our youths so that they can get along with each other and not feel the need to take such drastic steps to be heard. May we learn to take care of all the people of the world with social justice for all.
Oops, slipped onto my soap box there for a moment.
Enough from me. I will take photos when Steve visits.
WE are hoping that Graham may be moved by the end of the summer. It will be wonderful if he can be near all of you so you can visit him and help him to recover in spirit even if his body will not recover any more. I hold out hope that he will still improve but if he ends up in his current state, that is something we can all live with.
Love and peace to you all,
Linda
posted by Cosmic Sunshine at 7:53 AM
1 Comments:
you've heard of Dragon Dictate right? Its voice recognition software so all you need to do is speak to a microphone and the words come up on the computer... I use it to write essays, write e-mails, navigate web pages etc... the program requires a little training but nothing too difficult and it sure beats typing really slowly with a finger splint... all you need is a normal computer with a reasonable amount of memory and a microphone which are very cheap
The following websites might help
www.voicerecognition.com
as well as
www.knowbrainer.com
and last of all
www.scansoft.com/naturallyspeaking
I hope this helps a little bit. If you have any other questions aor want some ideas please feel free to ask because every little bit helps... rachel_at_croucher dot com dot au
(the reason I typed my e-mail address like that is to avoid spam scanners)
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