So I know it's been for ever since the last update, sorry about that.
At the moment, Jimmy and I are in Silicon Valley on a business trip, and things are going well here. I have been here for about two weeks now, and he's doing fine. I swear he remembered the San Francisco airport when I stepped off the plane! He was so happy to be back here, and so am I. I am loving things here in Cupertino, and it will be kind of rough transitioning back into retail, that's for sure. One thing this experience has taught me, is that I certainly want to continue working for this company, and that I want to transfer to corporate as soon as the right job that fits my skill set and other requirements comes along. I thought this might be the case, but it's always nice to have something that you thought you might like to do be confirmed in reality.
These past few months have been good for Jimmy and me. We had to have a follow up visit from GDB in late February when he decided to veer into intersections while crossing streets, but fortunately Beth from graduate services was able to come out and fix most of the issues. She is fabulous! I can't say enough great things about GDB and the follow up. It's great to know that they're around if an emergency like that comes up. While Beth was out, we decided that Jim just didn't fit this dog's personality, so we unofficially changed his name to Jimmy. Jim conjures up images of this serious man, and just doesn't fit this crazy yellow boy, if you ask me! :)
Well, I must sign off, as it's time to go to bed here in Cupertino. I will try and update more often, I promise! Hope everyone's doing well!
Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Monday, September 13, 2010
update
We've been home for three months now, and I can't believe how well things are going.
Yesterday, we had our quarterly meeting at work, and Jim got an award for being our stores best friend. All of my coworkers love having a dog around, and are very happy to play with the boy when he's not on duty. His work continues to be great, and he is doing well at navigating me through the city. Mostly, we work around my neighborhood and Georgetown, where my work is located. He is doing a great job at taking me across busy streets, and really handles anything I throw at him. Customers also love Jim, and seem happy to have him in the store.
I am delighted to report that things are going well for me at work as well, and that I am very happy both with work, as well as with my dog. These have been busy, but happy months for both of us, and I am very excited about our progress as a team. I am looking forward to many more years of partnership with my boy, and want again to thank everyone who had a hand in training and raiing him!
Yesterday, we had our quarterly meeting at work, and Jim got an award for being our stores best friend. All of my coworkers love having a dog around, and are very happy to play with the boy when he's not on duty. His work continues to be great, and he is doing well at navigating me through the city. Mostly, we work around my neighborhood and Georgetown, where my work is located. He is doing a great job at taking me across busy streets, and really handles anything I throw at him. Customers also love Jim, and seem happy to have him in the store.
I am delighted to report that things are going well for me at work as well, and that I am very happy both with work, as well as with my dog. These have been busy, but happy months for both of us, and I am very excited about our progress as a team. I am looking forward to many more years of partnership with my boy, and want again to thank everyone who had a hand in training and raiing him!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Training,day eight
I can't believe that Jim and I are already on day eight of our training, and a little more than half way through class. This time in ten days, we will be home together, I think we will be ready to take on the world as a team, and I am excited, though I will miss this place, and the friendships I have made here.
Today was very good over all. This morning, we went into San Francisco, and worked on Chestnut street. We crossed a large street, went to an Apple store, and took a city bus. Jim did great until we encountered a pet dog on a leash in the Apple store. He got completely dog distracted, and I had to do some obedience to get him back under control. Apparently, we let pets into our stores, I didn't know this, but I asked someone who said that as long as they are well behaved, they can be in the store. If they cause a problem for anyone, including my guide dog, we ask them to leave. So, that should be interesting when we get home. I will need to work with him on his dog distractions, but his trainer says he responds well to the gentle leader, and it should be easily fixed. We also discusssed keeping him in a crate in the office sometimes, so thathe has somewhere to take a breather if things get crazy. I will have to figure out all of the logistics when I get home, but I feel that it's all workable, and not a huge cause for concern. I just hope that we don't see to many pets, and that Jim doesn't missbehave when I'm with a customer. For a moment, I had horrible images of me saying something like, "let me tell you about our macbooks," my dog seeing a dog, and me having to completely stop in my tracks and get him back under control, but I don't hink it will happen to much, and if it does, I hope people will understand that we're just fresh out of training and still bonding and learning. I kind of wish we didn't just let pets walk in off the street, but there's not muc I can do about that, and I know that my rteam will give me a heads-up that a dog is around and if I know in advance, I can get things under control. Apart from that, he did really well in the city. Once the dog was out of the way, he seemed to like the Apple store and did a great job at navigating through the crowded aisles and displays. I'm not to worried, I think he should take well to his new environment.
When we were finished at the Apple store, we took a bus which he had no issues with. We ended up at a coffee shop and I had a latte with some classmates and relaxed for a bit.
After lunch, we did our first real indipendent route, called a bus to lounge. Basically, the instructors drop us off a few blocks away from the lounge we work out of when we're in downtown San Rafael, tell us how to get back to it, and designate someone to be the time keeper to make sure that people are spaced out every three minutes. People leave the spot every three minutes and begin working their way back to the lounge indipendently. There are instructors on street corners who step in if something goes really wrong, but the idea is to work the route by yourself. I was the time keeper, so I had my iPhone and made sure that people left every three minutes. I gave everyone a one minute warning, and made sure that people left when they were supposed to. I left last, and so was the last to make it to the lounge, but Jim and I nailed the route! Instructors didn't have to step in once with me. I made nice use of my iPhone's GPS features to check that I was going in the correct direction, and my instructors said that I'd made good use of the resources available to me. My classmates joked around with me and said I was cheating because I'd used a GPS system, they asked me where they could get one and I said, "well, for 199 dollars you can GPS it, too." One asked how he could swipe his credit card, I joked that I'd left the machine at home, and everyone laughed.
After that, we headed back to campus. I took Jim to run in a fenced in grassy area which he loved, talked to my friend, Rebecca on the phone until dinner, and after dinner went to a tribute for retrains run by our class training specialist. The tribute gave us all an opportunity to remember our previus guides, and many funny stories were told. Everyone cried at one point or another, for me, I cried when I talked about my Stoney, how he died, and how much we still miss him. I told the story about how he got the Apple pie of my Mom's counter, and about this time when he tried to bring a couch to show my Mom and her friend when my Mom came to get him.
The best story came from my friend Garry, I asked him, and he said it's OK to share it here. Garry had his first guide, a male yellow lab named Langer, and he was considering dating a woman, though he wasn't really sure about her. The two of them were hanging out at his apartment in Baltimore one day, and Langer was in front of them. Apparently, Langer didn't like the woman much, and he showed his displeasure by peang right in front of her feet, even though Garry had taken him out a few minutes before. Obviously, that relationship didn't last, and Garry decided he didn't like her anyways. Apparently, Langer aproved of Garry's wife, because he lickd her toes under the table the first time they met. That was a light moment in a pretty solumn hour long tribute session, but I'm really glad that we all got the chance to honor our previous guides. Both of mine really deserve it!
After the tribute, I hung out with my classmates Garry and Rebecca and we shared some laughs in the computer room. Rebecca was frustrated that she couldn't get the computers to load her gmail correctly, I tried to help, but had no success (I was reminded why I only use macs when I went through the frustration of trying to get a windows screen reader to do what I needed it to) so Rebecca is going to have her first macbook lesson tmorrow night, because she really neeeds to write an email and can't sign into her account on these computers. I hope I'm able to teach her a little, it will be a challenge with only one laptop, but I'm sure we'll figure it out.
Today, I also found out that Jim was raised in Palo Alto, which is pretty cool because I have friends there. I don't know anything else about his puppy raisers, but I guess I will find out more in the coming week. I was amazed how far away some of the puppy raisers are, one dog in our class comes from Washington State, I think Jim was one of the closest ones to the school in Palo Alto, the rest come from around Sacramento and the central Valley of California, I think. It's really great that there are so many dedicated volunteers who are willing to take these puppies in for a year, they have so much to do with shaping these creatures into the wonderful dogs they are, and I am just so greatful to all of my puppy raisers for the dedication and love they've shown to my guides! Thank you, guys!
Tomorrow, we go into San Francisco again. I am not sure what else is on the schedule, but what ever it is, I need to go to bed so that I can wake up feeling rested and ready to take it on!
As always, thanks for reading!
Today was very good over all. This morning, we went into San Francisco, and worked on Chestnut street. We crossed a large street, went to an Apple store, and took a city bus. Jim did great until we encountered a pet dog on a leash in the Apple store. He got completely dog distracted, and I had to do some obedience to get him back under control. Apparently, we let pets into our stores, I didn't know this, but I asked someone who said that as long as they are well behaved, they can be in the store. If they cause a problem for anyone, including my guide dog, we ask them to leave. So, that should be interesting when we get home. I will need to work with him on his dog distractions, but his trainer says he responds well to the gentle leader, and it should be easily fixed. We also discusssed keeping him in a crate in the office sometimes, so thathe has somewhere to take a breather if things get crazy. I will have to figure out all of the logistics when I get home, but I feel that it's all workable, and not a huge cause for concern. I just hope that we don't see to many pets, and that Jim doesn't missbehave when I'm with a customer. For a moment, I had horrible images of me saying something like, "let me tell you about our macbooks," my dog seeing a dog, and me having to completely stop in my tracks and get him back under control, but I don't hink it will happen to much, and if it does, I hope people will understand that we're just fresh out of training and still bonding and learning. I kind of wish we didn't just let pets walk in off the street, but there's not muc I can do about that, and I know that my rteam will give me a heads-up that a dog is around and if I know in advance, I can get things under control. Apart from that, he did really well in the city. Once the dog was out of the way, he seemed to like the Apple store and did a great job at navigating through the crowded aisles and displays. I'm not to worried, I think he should take well to his new environment.
When we were finished at the Apple store, we took a bus which he had no issues with. We ended up at a coffee shop and I had a latte with some classmates and relaxed for a bit.
After lunch, we did our first real indipendent route, called a bus to lounge. Basically, the instructors drop us off a few blocks away from the lounge we work out of when we're in downtown San Rafael, tell us how to get back to it, and designate someone to be the time keeper to make sure that people are spaced out every three minutes. People leave the spot every three minutes and begin working their way back to the lounge indipendently. There are instructors on street corners who step in if something goes really wrong, but the idea is to work the route by yourself. I was the time keeper, so I had my iPhone and made sure that people left every three minutes. I gave everyone a one minute warning, and made sure that people left when they were supposed to. I left last, and so was the last to make it to the lounge, but Jim and I nailed the route! Instructors didn't have to step in once with me. I made nice use of my iPhone's GPS features to check that I was going in the correct direction, and my instructors said that I'd made good use of the resources available to me. My classmates joked around with me and said I was cheating because I'd used a GPS system, they asked me where they could get one and I said, "well, for 199 dollars you can GPS it, too." One asked how he could swipe his credit card, I joked that I'd left the machine at home, and everyone laughed.
After that, we headed back to campus. I took Jim to run in a fenced in grassy area which he loved, talked to my friend, Rebecca on the phone until dinner, and after dinner went to a tribute for retrains run by our class training specialist. The tribute gave us all an opportunity to remember our previus guides, and many funny stories were told. Everyone cried at one point or another, for me, I cried when I talked about my Stoney, how he died, and how much we still miss him. I told the story about how he got the Apple pie of my Mom's counter, and about this time when he tried to bring a couch to show my Mom and her friend when my Mom came to get him.
The best story came from my friend Garry, I asked him, and he said it's OK to share it here. Garry had his first guide, a male yellow lab named Langer, and he was considering dating a woman, though he wasn't really sure about her. The two of them were hanging out at his apartment in Baltimore one day, and Langer was in front of them. Apparently, Langer didn't like the woman much, and he showed his displeasure by peang right in front of her feet, even though Garry had taken him out a few minutes before. Obviously, that relationship didn't last, and Garry decided he didn't like her anyways. Apparently, Langer aproved of Garry's wife, because he lickd her toes under the table the first time they met. That was a light moment in a pretty solumn hour long tribute session, but I'm really glad that we all got the chance to honor our previous guides. Both of mine really deserve it!
After the tribute, I hung out with my classmates Garry and Rebecca and we shared some laughs in the computer room. Rebecca was frustrated that she couldn't get the computers to load her gmail correctly, I tried to help, but had no success (I was reminded why I only use macs when I went through the frustration of trying to get a windows screen reader to do what I needed it to) so Rebecca is going to have her first macbook lesson tmorrow night, because she really neeeds to write an email and can't sign into her account on these computers. I hope I'm able to teach her a little, it will be a challenge with only one laptop, but I'm sure we'll figure it out.
Today, I also found out that Jim was raised in Palo Alto, which is pretty cool because I have friends there. I don't know anything else about his puppy raisers, but I guess I will find out more in the coming week. I was amazed how far away some of the puppy raisers are, one dog in our class comes from Washington State, I think Jim was one of the closest ones to the school in Palo Alto, the rest come from around Sacramento and the central Valley of California, I think. It's really great that there are so many dedicated volunteers who are willing to take these puppies in for a year, they have so much to do with shaping these creatures into the wonderful dogs they are, and I am just so greatful to all of my puppy raisers for the dedication and love they've shown to my guides! Thank you, guys!
Tomorrow, we go into San Francisco again. I am not sure what else is on the schedule, but what ever it is, I need to go to bed so that I can wake up feeling rested and ready to take it on!
As always, thanks for reading!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Training, Day 7
Today was a pretty good day for Jim and me. He is at the point in class where he is testing me to see what I will let him get away with. This happens when a dog ralizes that it is no longer with it's instructors, and that it now has a new handler who might cut it some slack and let it get away with things like sniffing or running curbs. Jim certainly tried to sniff a lot this morning when we were on our way to a coffee shop downtown, but he quickly got the messae that I wasn't going to let him get away with being sniffy or distracted by things like dogs. Every time he stopped to sniff a bush I put him in a sit, corrected, and we went on our way. At one point, I had to put Jim on a gentle leader, a sort of contraption which goes over the dog's nose, so that they can't sniff, this fixed Jim's sniffing issues, mostly, ad we got through the rest of the route pretty well. My instructor said that I should consider this a posative route, because even though Jim was distracted, I was able to get him back under control and stop him from sniffing.
This afternoon, we walked over to a mall accross the street from campus, and practiced work on stairs, escalators, and elivators. This was a much beetter route, and Jim didn't sniff at all. I really think that he got the message this morning. He did well dealing with the escalators and I was proud of him. I was also very glad that ie didn't seem to mind the escalators, because he'll be dealing with them on a daily basis when we get home and I go to work on the subway.
When I got back to campus, I relaxed for a while, and had a very enjoyable dinner out with a friend. We went to an Applebees near campus, and it was just great to get out into the real world, have a drink and some dinner, and spend time with my friend. We were able to take a tun of pictures, so when we figure out which ones came out well, I can try to post them here, or send them to those who would like them via email.
Tomorrow, we go into San Francisco. I am very excited to see Jim work in the city. I'm also looking forward to a quick trip to the Apple Store on Chestnut Street, just to give Jim a quick glimps of the conditions he'll deal with every day when he gets home. I can't spend much time, because the instructors need to work with everyone, but it will just be great to walk inside and work him a little through the displays, people, etc. I'm sure he'll do great! I'll probably take the iPad along, because we'll have to spend a lot of time in a coffee shop, and it will be nice to have it with me.
Well, I think that's about all of note for today. I'm having an early night because I want to be ready for San Francisco tomorrow morning! Goodnight, everyone!
This afternoon, we walked over to a mall accross the street from campus, and practiced work on stairs, escalators, and elivators. This was a much beetter route, and Jim didn't sniff at all. I really think that he got the message this morning. He did well dealing with the escalators and I was proud of him. I was also very glad that ie didn't seem to mind the escalators, because he'll be dealing with them on a daily basis when we get home and I go to work on the subway.
When I got back to campus, I relaxed for a while, and had a very enjoyable dinner out with a friend. We went to an Applebees near campus, and it was just great to get out into the real world, have a drink and some dinner, and spend time with my friend. We were able to take a tun of pictures, so when we figure out which ones came out well, I can try to post them here, or send them to those who would like them via email.
Tomorrow, we go into San Francisco. I am very excited to see Jim work in the city. I'm also looking forward to a quick trip to the Apple Store on Chestnut Street, just to give Jim a quick glimps of the conditions he'll deal with every day when he gets home. I can't spend much time, because the instructors need to work with everyone, but it will just be great to walk inside and work him a little through the displays, people, etc. I'm sure he'll do great! I'll probably take the iPad along, because we'll have to spend a lot of time in a coffee shop, and it will be nice to have it with me.
Well, I think that's about all of note for today. I'm having an early night because I want to be ready for San Francisco tomorrow morning! Goodnight, everyone!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Training, day five
Wow, I can't believe I've been here a week today. Time really does fly.
Yesterday was a day off, so no real training activity happened. I spent the day catching up with friends, bonding with Jim, going swimming and doing laundry. It was nice an relaxing and helped get me into gear for the busy week ahead.
Today, we did another route in downtown San Rafael this morning and had individual meetings with our instructors in the afternoon to talk about our progress. Jim did great on our route to a coffee shop; I had to correct hi for running a couple of curbs and we had to watch to make sure that we didn't veer into the street, but it was a great succcess over all and I was very proud of him! When we got to our destination, Jim lay under a table while I took out my iPad and tried to follow Steve Job's keynote at Apple's World Wide Developers conference in San Francisco. I did that and was asked by the curious citizens of San Rafael how my iPad worked for me and how I used it. The two people who asked seemed to really enjoy my explination and so we had a nice conversation about dogs, Apple products, and did some speculation about what was happening just 20 minutes away over the Golden Gate Bridge at the keynote. We couldn't get wireless to work on the iPad, so I couldn't use it to check. We used my iPhone instead, but really I think the speculation was just as much fun as actually finding out. We also discussed GDB and dogs which was cool. It was neat to hear the local citizens talk about how they liked having our school in the community. Through out this, my dog was completely sacked out at my feet; my instructor and I had to wake him up when she came back after about 40 minutes or so because she was helping a classmate go to radio shack to fix hear dead phone. When I came here, I expected that we'd do more routes and things together asa class, but both times, I've been the only GDB person in the two coffee shops I've visited which has surprised me a bit. Perhaps no one in my class likes hanging out over a cup of coffee as much as I do? I'm not sure, but I will say that the coffee in both places I've tried has been excellent! It's really neat to see local coffee establishments other than Starbucks doing well.
When we got back from our route, it was time for lunch and our meetings. My instructor told me in my meeting that she thought Jim and I were doing great as a team and that things are going smoothly. We talked about working in the city, how well I was bonding with Jim, and the progress he and I are making as a team in our partnership. She said again how well matched we are and that she loves watching us walk together. So all of those things made me feel really good! We also briefly talked about Yahzee and how she has made me a better guide dog handler, because I have a good grasp on dealing with things like dog distractions and positioning.
After my meeting I basically did some computer stuff, studdied up on what happened at the huge Apple conference today, had dinner, hung out with classmates for a bit, and got some good bonding time with my dog on my patio. I think he's pretty exhausted now! I went to pet him and he just curled up on his rug and went to sleep. He is such a good boy, and I am looking forward to doing more work with him tomorrow! I am not sure what tomorrow holds in terms of routes, but what ever it brings, it's bedtime for both of us!
6:30 comes early!
Yesterday was a day off, so no real training activity happened. I spent the day catching up with friends, bonding with Jim, going swimming and doing laundry. It was nice an relaxing and helped get me into gear for the busy week ahead.
Today, we did another route in downtown San Rafael this morning and had individual meetings with our instructors in the afternoon to talk about our progress. Jim did great on our route to a coffee shop; I had to correct hi for running a couple of curbs and we had to watch to make sure that we didn't veer into the street, but it was a great succcess over all and I was very proud of him! When we got to our destination, Jim lay under a table while I took out my iPad and tried to follow Steve Job's keynote at Apple's World Wide Developers conference in San Francisco. I did that and was asked by the curious citizens of San Rafael how my iPad worked for me and how I used it. The two people who asked seemed to really enjoy my explination and so we had a nice conversation about dogs, Apple products, and did some speculation about what was happening just 20 minutes away over the Golden Gate Bridge at the keynote. We couldn't get wireless to work on the iPad, so I couldn't use it to check. We used my iPhone instead, but really I think the speculation was just as much fun as actually finding out. We also discussed GDB and dogs which was cool. It was neat to hear the local citizens talk about how they liked having our school in the community. Through out this, my dog was completely sacked out at my feet; my instructor and I had to wake him up when she came back after about 40 minutes or so because she was helping a classmate go to radio shack to fix hear dead phone. When I came here, I expected that we'd do more routes and things together asa class, but both times, I've been the only GDB person in the two coffee shops I've visited which has surprised me a bit. Perhaps no one in my class likes hanging out over a cup of coffee as much as I do? I'm not sure, but I will say that the coffee in both places I've tried has been excellent! It's really neat to see local coffee establishments other than Starbucks doing well.
When we got back from our route, it was time for lunch and our meetings. My instructor told me in my meeting that she thought Jim and I were doing great as a team and that things are going smoothly. We talked about working in the city, how well I was bonding with Jim, and the progress he and I are making as a team in our partnership. She said again how well matched we are and that she loves watching us walk together. So all of those things made me feel really good! We also briefly talked about Yahzee and how she has made me a better guide dog handler, because I have a good grasp on dealing with things like dog distractions and positioning.
After my meeting I basically did some computer stuff, studdied up on what happened at the huge Apple conference today, had dinner, hung out with classmates for a bit, and got some good bonding time with my dog on my patio. I think he's pretty exhausted now! I went to pet him and he just curled up on his rug and went to sleep. He is such a good boy, and I am looking forward to doing more work with him tomorrow! I am not sure what tomorrow holds in terms of routes, but what ever it brings, it's bedtime for both of us!
6:30 comes early!
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