Mark and I met my step-brother, Mark, and his wife, Carol, for dinner last night, and it was fabulous. We had not seen each other in nearly a year. Wow, what a difference a year makes. Mark and I both have short hair now, for one thing. For years he had a long pony tail. Now he has short, adorable hair. Carol, a professional stylist, also cut her long hair into a cute, sassy new look. I loved her new style. Maybe when I get a little more hair, I can do something similar.
Mark has retinitis pigmentosa, which was diagnosed around age 12. At this point he has been completely blind for a number of years. Until recently, he wasn't really dealing with it very much. Yet, when we got to the restaurant yesterday, he was attempting to read the Braille menu. Yes, he's taking lessons in Braille. He also had a fabulous white cane that telescoped, looked like a giant Sharpie pen when retracted, and fit in his pocket. He bought an heirloom watch with a lift up crystal and raised numbers and hands. He can tell the time by touch. He has a talking book machine that can download dozens of books for free from the library. Amazing. He said that he has been unchallenged and bored for years, but he is now going to get busy with the new projects of Braille, learning touch typing, getting onto the computer, and even Spanish lessons. He has been accepted to Hadley University online for the Braille lessons. All I can say is that I am so proud of him.
We stayed in the restaurant for hours and then continued the evening talking in their hotel room until near midnight. At 8 a.m. we met up again in the motel breakfast room where we sat and ate and talked until 10:30. If check out time wasn't 11, we might have been there still. LOL!!
Love you both, Mark and Carol!! I'm so sorry that I forgot to take pictures of us together. Sniff.
We had an easy drive up to Ashland, VA today. At lunch time, I rewrapped part of my arm because it seemed to be unraveling. I didn't think there was much compression on the forearm any more. Now I think it's really perfect. I plan to keep it in place until Friday night. I hope it looks good when I take it off!
Tomorrow we will drive to East Brunswick, NJ and have dinner with the Gaertner families at a wonderful kosher restaurant in their neighborhood. We are really looking forward to that.
I am so glad that you had such a wonderful time with your step brother and his wife. You continue to have such a very good attitude about the arm wrapping. You impress me. I hope that your arm wrapping looks good on Friday too. I hope you keep having a great time on your vacation.
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