Dichroic Reflections

Got back from the US on Saturday morning and proceeded to spend the weekend in the fog of jetlag. Rowing Sunday, in particular, didn’t feel good; the rest of the time the fog wasn’t unpleasant because there wasn’t much I actually had to do.

Yesterday I had a doctor’s appointment. Annoyingly, I’ll need to go back in 2 weeks, because while you can only have a Pap smear when you don’t have your period, apparently you can only have Implanon (birth control implant) put in when you do. I am also not too impressed with the doctor who did the Pap. He didn’t pay any attention to my request to use a smaller speculum. Dude: I’ve been getitng these every year or two since I was 16; I know they usually use the small size on me. And there isn’t usually that much maneuvering, either. Ow. He also wasn’t paying too much attention when I told him how differently things are done in the States; I wasn’t trying to get him to change his way to doing anything, just to let him know that he needs to explain things in really obvious ways, because Things Are Different Here. Like, I would have been helpful to be told, “You can take your pants off now; I’ll just turn around” very clearly, because in the US doctors actually leave the room (they also give you a paper sheet to cover up with, which always seems a little silly to me, and come back with a nurse, which is for the patient’s protection). There wasn’t anything else either – just Pap and go, whereas in the US a routine exam generally includes manual palpation and a few other things. Again, just fine, except I needed to have stuff made clear.

I didn’t get scheduled for a mammogram either; my Taiwan doctor wanted me to have one, and I think I’d be about due in the US, but here you start at 50 and then have them every 5 or so years. I had one in 2006, but I’m not too worried about that since I do check myself and I don’t have any particular risk factors.

Anyway, after the appointment I made a giant pot of jambalaya, so that makes everything better.

Also, I have to report a conversation with Ted the other day. We were talking about US elections.

Him: They need to just get ride of the Electrical College.
Me: Um… is that where you go to learn about current events?
Him: incoherent flailing
Him again, ten minutes later: I should have said that’s where you go if you have a high capacity for inductive learnign!

Best part of the trip so far: as we were driving away fromJFK airport, we caught a glimpse of the Space Shuttle. It’s currently still mounted on a 747′ sitting under a shelter (not an enclosed hangar, just a roof) at the airport.

Weirdest part: one of my colleagues was going to a supermarket and asked if I wanted anything. I somehow managed to leave my vitamins at home, and only found out the first night long after I got back from Walmart, so I asked him to get regular Centrum, smallest bottle they had. For some unknown reason he got me Ultra Mega Super Gazonga Vitamins for Women from GNC instead. I just don’t understand these. Centrum has 100% RDA of most vitamins, less in a few cases (it only has 70% of vitamin A, which is fine with me since I just read that too much of it is poisonous. Even 100% seems like a bit much – after all, I do eat food, and the vitamin is only meant as a supplement, in case I miss anything. So why do these vitamins have as much as a couple thousand percent of some vitamins? What good does 2941%RDA of riboflavin do me? And why on earth do these pills contain no potassium?

Youre supposed to take 2, but I think I’ll stick to one a day.

Huh. I’m in the US (Connecticut) for work this week. I’d thought it was 5 work weeks from when I get back until my next US trip (family visit), but it’s only four – well, four and a half, since the trip is Thursday through Tuesday. Also, next week is only a three-day work week due to Hemelvaart (Ascension Day) and there’s also a 4-day week in there due to Pinkster (Pentecost). Cool.

This trip is all about work; last night was the first time I wasn’t with my coworkers, and I just went out to dinner across the street, then back to my hotel room and knit. I did take a quick walk to a nearby Wal-Mart before dinner on Sunday, and bought two bags of my favorite pretzels (one to eat here, one to take home).

It does get old, being around the same people all day and all evening. I just left my colleagues on a post-lunch walk; there are a bunch of Canadian geese here, and they are a problem as in much of the Northeast US. (And parts of California, and I am sure other places.) They can be aggressive. Problem is, people from some other places may not have much concept of wild animals. I didn’t think it was funny when one of my colleagues kept feeding a goose with grapes despite my objections, but I thought it was much less funny when they were egging a Korean guy, who didn’t know better, to get close to it. The goose was hissing and clearly not happy, and I just left.

Still, we’re getting lots of good work done, and the flip side of being around the same people is the chance to bond, which is needed for a worldwide team. I keep reminding myself.

I seem to be a day late for Blogging Against Dis/ablism Day, but since I don’t think that ablism has magically vanished since yesterday, this essay still applies. It was originally written for an acquaintance’s zine, so I didn’t want to publish it until she did; however it looks like she decided not to use it anyway (at the last minute, since she told me a week ago that it was going in). Oh, well – I retain rights, anyway, and had always been planning to put it up here. I’ve taken the chance to brush it up a bit, too.

Back in the 1990s, when NASA was building the first modules of the Space Station, they learned an interesting thing. They had a goal to design the outside of the Station in such a way that all maintenance tasks could be performed by the Station’s robot arm. The interesting thing they learned was that tasks designed to be easier for the robot arm were also easier for astronauts in space suits to perform.

Accessible design is a lot like that. To be sure, specific accommodations are needed for specific disabilities; the design changes needed for a person with hearing loss are not the same as those needed for someone in a wheelchair or for someone with generalized anxiety disorder. Anyone who has a disability will need to plan spaces to suit their own needs, in order to maximize their abilities. Nonetheless, incorporating some generalized accessible design principles into living and working spaces is good for everyone.

There are a lot of reasons for this. For one, spaces are not only used by the people they’re designed for. If you can’t invite your new friend to the party you’re having because your friend is in a wheelchair and there are steps to get into your house and to get to the bathroom, then you and your friend both lose. Second, not all disabilities are known at the time of design. Some are temporary, and some come on with age or illness; if you bought that house with the stairs because you’re in good shape and you don’t mind going up and down them, and you don’t put in a sturdy railing because you don’t need it, you are going to regret that decision when you break your leg and need to wear a cast, or when you get an inner-ear infection that gives you vertigo. Thirdly, many accessible design ideas are helpful even for people with no disabilities, or with none that normally affect the task at hand, just due to situations that come up in daily life.

One example is electrical switches. Rocker switches, or sliders instead of rotary knobs with dimmers are good for people whose fingers don’t work well for precise gripping – but they’re also helpful for people with their arms full of groceries, or who are carrying a baby, or even people who have just gone on their first rock-climbing outing and find their fingers are not too responsive. Mounting switches a bit lower than normal also makes them easy to operate with a shoulder or elbow – or for your friend in the wheelchair.

Lever-style faucets and shower controls that can just be pushed into place are great for people without much finger strength or dexterity. That could be you, if you stay in your present house until you’re much older – or if you go on that rock-climbing outing.

Sidewalk ramps help people on bicycles, people towing shopping carts, and people who for whatever reason can’t easily lift a foot higher as well as people in wheelchairs or using crutches.

People with hearing loss may have a house where the doorbell is wired to make lights flash on and off, and may watch TV or movies with subtitles. But “people who can’t hear the doorbell” also includes someone who is listening to loud music or washing dishes. People who can benefit from subtitles also include someone who is talking on the phone or someone who is learning a new language.

Room to move around, surfaces or handles to lean on, controls reachable by people at a variety of heights; controls that can be worked in different ways (e.g. by a shoulder or elbow, not only by a pincer grip); and signals that engage more than one sense, can help a wide variety of people to live better lives, in a wide variety of situations, and can help prepare for changes that happen over time.

People vary, and they change over time. Don’t assume everyone using a space will be able-bodied; don’t assume people who are able-bodied will stay that way, don’t assume that all individuals with disabilities will need the same accommodations,and don’t put in accommodations without thinking about how they’ll be used, or you’ll end up with something that’s more annoying than helpful. However, a little thought can make a space more usable for a wide variety of people, and one of those could be yourself, on any day when for whatever reason you can’t use all of your body freely.

I’ve finally finished my Whisper sweater, begun early last year and put aside for a while, and have decide I’m not really all that fond of knitting with laceweight yarn. Knitting with string (sock yarn) I can deal with; knitting with lace yarn is just taking things too far. It fits pretty well, at least. Hopefully now that I’ve blocked it, it won’t begin to roll too badly.

Not a great picture of me; it looks like I’d just woken up because I had. But it shows the cardigan well!

In reaction, I’ve begun a blanket for Mom with bulky yarn. The original plan was to make one for Dad when we thought he’d need chemo; since he doesn’t he’ll never use it, but Mom was very interested in having one for herself, so she’ll get it for her birthday in December. WHich reminds me ….

..OK, Mom’s gift for Mother’s Day has been duly ordered, an Oberon Designs cover for the Kindle I got her last birthday. At least this year I know what to get for Dad: me! I’ll be visiting them over Father’s Day and his birthday, and attending a reunion of his family.

Back to knitting: I was having problems figuring out what yarn to use; bulky-weight is not too common here, and I didn’t see anything I liked much in Michaels a few weeks ago. But on one of our last days in the US, we got to The Fiber Shop in Eugene, which is not an enormous store, but is packed full of all kinds of yarn. I bought some Berroco Vintage Chunky, a soft wool/acrylic blend (so it’s washable and should be durable) in a luscious purple color. I must be looking old these days, because I told the woman behind the counter that it was for my mom and she urged me to stick with a machine washable yarn, because in case Mom needed help with her care, it would be easier for people to wash (i.e. in a nursing home). I started to laugh, mentioned Mom’s three-times-a-week gym habit, and successfully managed not to say “in fact, she’s probably younger than you!” Actually, she probably isn’t, but she looks younger than that woman. I hope she liks the blanket, anyway; it’s my own Wombat pattern (see sidebar) and I’m putting a complex Celtic cable down the front.

With the cardigan done, it’s a nice feeling to only have one knitting project in progress. It won’t last long, though; it’s already bigger than I want to take to the US next week, so I’ll start a sock project Saturday. I’m not sure what pattern I’ll use yet – Victorian Birdcage (Ravelry link) or Paper Moon (from Knitty) are two possibilities.

Even better than The Enchantment Emporium, its predecessor; it’s got fiddles. And Great Big Sea t-shirts, bodhrans and a fourteen-year-old dragon boy. It’s also got both the old (Selkies, boggarts, “Captain Wedderburn”, “I’se the B’y”, the nail for want of which the kingdom was lost) and new (“Is that a Hello Kitty sporran?” “I got it from an Etsy shop. It’s a one-off,” and “the dragon formerly known as Prince”) in a mix that reminds me of nothing so much as War For the Oaks.

I definitely need to check out her other series.

First, some photos from our regatta in Oregon are here.

Next, as anyone following along on Facebook, Ravelry or even Avontuur knows, I managed to leave my wallet in the Portland airport and realized it only upon arrival in Amsterdam. Good thing I was traveling with my husband, or I don’t know how I could have gotten home. Luckily I did have my passport, Dutch residence permit, iPhone, work phone and house keys because they were in other pockets in my backpack.

That’s mostly been resolved. The shop where I left it FedExed it to me and it arrived Wednesday.I did the responsible thing (unfortunately) and canceled my bank cards and Dutch credit card, which means I lost a wallet with debit and credit cards and got one back with useless bits of plastic in it. However, I didn’t cancel my US credit card (because it would have been difficult to get back – they can’t send it to an address outside the US – and because I could keep a close eye on it via the bank’s website) so I have that, and I have received my Dutch PINcard already. This is very good, since I have to go back to the US on business in only another week. (Could be worse – Ted leaves for Taiwan tomorrow.)

If you’re in the Portland airport, buy your magazines and candy at the place next to Powell’s near gate D7. I think it’s called Northwest Travel Mart. I can vouch they’re honest people!

The other reason I was working from home Wednesday besides getting my FedEx package, wasso that the repairman could come and fix our microwave/oven combi (the cover over the light exploded!) and washer (door latch won’t work). He was able to establish that it’s OK to use the combi without the cover, but he had to order a part for the washer. He came today and was working down there with Ted, who has just come up to report. Apparently now we’re in limbo: the door laches and the washer works, only now we’re not sure if it will unlatch. It’s running now as a test now, with an empty load, so we’ll know in an hour or so. Because that’s how long this washer takes.

Our friend K, while visiting us in Oregon, kept laughing at me for being so excited at how big and efficient our US appliances were. This is part of why. She was depressingly correct. I had thought our ovn was biggish even by US standards – nope, it’s this one, which is a nice range but bog-standard as to sizing – in fact, that brand has two larger sizes and none smaller. I really need to write a post on Dutch vs US kitchens. Our Dutch ones have been prettier than any US ones I’ve had, but not so good for actual function.

I’ve just finished reading Tanya Huff’s Enchantment Emporium, and wow. I’m glad to see there’s a sequel, because there’s a whole lot of world in that world-building. It actually took me a little while to get into the book, and for the first while I wasn’t sure I was going to finish it, because I couldn’t figure out how the Gale family worked and I wasn’t sure if it was just really complicated or if it was going to stay obscure and veiled. Fortunately the complexity did all get explained, and the characters made it worthwhile to stick it out. (Though I do think the first vignette, from a different point of view, could have been skipped.)

Slight spoilers below: Continue Reading »

It’s our last night here and only the 2 nd clear night we’ve had- we got a full taste of Oregon weather this trip. Can’t complain, since we had beautiful weather right when we needed it, for the regatta. Tonight I went out star watching and learned something new and cool; I suppose I could have figured this out from basic principles, but I never thought about it. If you watch a satellite through binoculars, it appears to be moving way faster than if you watch it with bare eyes. That makes sense, since what the binocs are doing is taking a small field of view and blowing it up, but it is Very Exciting to watch the satellite blazing across the sky!

I can’t wait until I’m here during a meteor shower. Also, maybe I need a small telescope.

…. just hanging out in Oregon. So far we’ve socialized with our friend K (once known as She-Hulk on this site – – she was in a quad with a bunch of small rowers, my size, at the time – but she doesn’t really like the name) and the in-laws, and a random rower from Arizona who came up for the race and who we invited over for dinner. We’ve eaten all the foods we can’t get int he Netherlands – pretzels, of course, and all the foods we can’t get where we live: steaks, grilled salmon (well, they have it there, but this was Pacific NW salmon and we got to grill it ourselves), grilled green asparagus, roasted turkey, burritoes, other Mexican food. We’ve made good use of the dock for practice and for the race; today I even went out in a double with Ted and we managed not to tick each other off. (Rowing with your spouse can be …. interesting.) And we’ve gotten to sleep late, drink lots of Oregon wine and beer, and check out RVs and big trucks to pull them, in prep for next year.

All this and getting to not be at work, too!

(Pics wil come later; I forgot to bring the card reader to upload them.)