Reading and Dental Adventures

I started out the day reviewing two books about persons with disability. In one of my fall semester courses there is a unit that includes working with students with disabilities. These books gave me concepts to add. One important idea from a book by Georgia Kleege, titled, Blind Rage: Letters to Helen Keller. In this book she writes that the icon we carry in our heads about Helen Keller causes us to see "disability is a personal tragedy to be overcome through an individual's fortitude and pluck, rather than a set of cultural practices and assumptions, affecting many individuals that could be changed through collective action."I've got very good ideas now to put into the course module and will have it ready for next fall.

Meanwhile life goes on.

Above is a photo of snow plows on the railroad tracks. The plows have been a fairly regular feature this winter, but I really don't think the trains have been delayed, other than the Amtrack. It is often weather delayed this winter as it comes east from Washington State. Also the passenger train has to defer in schedule all the time to freight trains.

The blog, Updraft, on the Minnesota Public Radio web site explains we are now in the midst of a polar vortex located over Hudson Bay. The blog uses the metaphor of a bicycle wheel, explaining that as the spoke of the wheel comes over us, we get another spit of snow. The accumulation today is only about one inch. This weather is expected to go on for the next two weeks.

I ended the day in the dental chair, getting all the work done for another crown. This appointment was for 4 PM, really got started at 4:15. I knew it was planned to be a 90 minute appointment and so would end in the dark.

When I walked out I saw the lovely winter scene with the flag.

The dental office is basically across the river from where I live, but of course one can't walk across the river. I got into the end of rush hour. The last part of the trip is down hill, over the railroad tracks and then turn right. One has to take care at the tracks, not to get stopped in the wrong place. Much to my amazement there was a traffic jam on the street in front of my apartment. It took maybe 10 minutes to go the last half mile. I really don't know what the problem was. Often there is a lot of traffic this time of day, east bound if the Minnesota Wild are playing hockey. However, this was a west bound slow down. Probably a stalled car or an accident somewhere ahead.