Grab the Lapels

Sunday Lowdown #227

THIS WEEK IN REFLECTION

My psychology and sociology classes will wrap up next week, and then I get a one-week break. Hurray! After that, it’s on to philosophy and introduction to religion for seven weeks, and then fall semester.

I attended my first Michiana Deaf Alliance meeting, and it was so interesting! People arguing about whether the meeting is closed, whose turn it is to speak, procedure (there is a new president being guided by the old president), and how to vote in certain ways. For instance, a summer camp for D/deaf and hard of hearing children are asking for contributions to help cover costs for kids who can’t pay, so how much represents the support the MDA wants to show? And what does camp mean to a D/d or HoH child? At one point I noticed a hearing couple sitting nearby with these dreamy looks on their faces, watching the meeting. I wonder if they were thinking, “Sign language! So beautiful!” Meanwhile, the conversation . . . well, included some adult language, lol. What I’m saying is Deaf people are people.

On Saturday night, Nick and I headed into Michigan to attend a Kalamazoo area DNO (Deaf Night Out). We were out very late, hence this post arriving in your inbox late. Typically, if I send out a Sunday Lowdown post late, it means I was out having a good time, not that something is wrong. The same thing happened at the DNO: hearing people were staring at the group signing. Eventually, they started coming over and telling the group how they are all beautiful people and shares stories of Deaf people doing great things despite all their challenges. It was a challenge not to cringe so hard I turned myself inside out. In our interpreting program we’re very much taught that Deaf people can do anything except hear, though I do confess the individuals making the comments had been on an all-day pub crawl.

I’m taking more steps to getting my allergy shots. I had to see a nurse at the wellness center where I’m going to get the shots. Basically, it was a medical appointment with a co-pay so she could sign a piece of paper saying I could get shots with their company. *sigh* I think it was basically a liability meeting where they proved I’m fit enough to get shots and not say their shots caused some other issue. I’ll get the first shot next week at the allergist and then take my brew over to the wellness center for further shots. If this is confusing to non-Americans, I’m not surprised. Getting the shot at the allergist will cost me $30 every time I go (once per week for a year, to start), but if I go to this wellness center, it doesn’t cost me anything. This is all decided by insurance.

The flowers we bought for the shepherd’s hooks out front. Kitty wants out!
So we decided to buy Kitty a harness and take her out.

THIS WEEK’S BLOG POST

I am amazing by how many of my followers read Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club years ago, perhaps even when it came out, and almost no one remembers what it’s about. Granted, it came out a long time ago, but it must not be one of those books that stuck with folks. Only moments, not the whole plot, really stuck with me.

NEXT WEEK’S BLOG POST

Alrighty everyone seems to be getting into 20 Books of Summer, a challenge that, in the past, has given me some serious anxiety related to perfectionism, which I did not know I suffer from until I spent (*checks calendar*) 9 months in therapy. Therefore, I’m going to be brave (please don’t judge) and share a 20 Books of Summer list this week on Tuesday.

Then, on Thursday I’ll share a special post: my review of Manstealing for Fat Girls by Michelle Embree and an interview with the author. This book was just so delightful and weird that I had to reach out and ask Embree why she hasn’t birthed more books into the world yet!

BOOKS I BOUGHT

Books I paid for (that are not textbooks) since January 2023:

  • True-Biz by Sara Novic ($1)
  • Rants from the Hill by Michael P. Branch ($1)
  • The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories, edited by Peter Haining ($1.50)
  • What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage ($0.79)
  • Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray ($0.79)
  • All of Me by Venise Berry ($0.99)
  • Planet Earth books from Time Life ($4.00 for 7 books)
  • North American Wildlife by Susan J. Wernert ($0.50)

Running Cost: $10.57

BOOKS ADDED TO THE TBR PILE

KODAK Digital Still Camera

36 comments

  1. I see you have developed a book buying strategy, as long as they are less than $1 (give or take), it’s ok to acquire? 😉

    Did you feel welcome at the MDA meeting? Did you know anyone there? How often do they meet? The DNO sounds great, though, ugh, hearing people! So condescending. One plus though, you can talk about them and they have no idea what anyone is saying.

    Good luck with your allergy shots!

    Does Kitty like being outside on her harness?

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    • Ha! Oh, my, Stefanie, I realized yesterday that I had started out this year saying I would not buy any books that were not textbooks, but I keep doing it so long as they are inexpensive! Ack! You got me, lol. I just keep finding such weird and wonderful titles at Goodwill, garage sales, etc. I’m excited about all my Earth books because they have full-color pages and the text looks written in a layman’s fashion, so I can understand it.

      I felt very welcome at the MDA meeting and knew everyone except two people. I think they are getting into the swing of a monthly meeting after being sporadic due to COVID.

      The Kalamazoo DNO is always a hoot. The folks there tend to be younger, whereas the local Deaf group leans older. It’s a great experience to hang with both and see how age, when the ADA was created, and location affect the Deaf community.

      Kitty DOES like her harness, and I was shocked! We’ve had other cats go full corpse mode when we put a harness on them. Now it just needs to stop raining before I take her out again (well, I don’t want it to stop raining because we need it, but I’m not taking the cat out in the rain).

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      • The books are small things that make you happy and that’s the important thing! I hope you enjoy every one of them!

        That’s so cool about both the MDA and DNO!

        I’m sure if you tried to take Kitty out in the rain she would suddenly become quite expert at corpse mode! I have never tried to put a harness on any cats I have had because I am certain every one of them would have left deep claw marks in my arm 😀

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    • Our past cats have gone civil disobedience mode when we put the harness on them, so the fact that she would do it surprised us. We were encouraged by the show My Cat From Hell. Jackson Galaxy really encourages certain pet guardians to walk their cats to expand the cat’s territory. Because Kitty has a small room due to my allergies and her puking when she’s in a bigger space, we decided that going outside could expand her world without messing up the house situation.

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  3. I never had a cat who liked a harness. When Pippin was a kitten I trained him to stay in our yard by taking him out on the harness, because he could outrun me (well, anyone can) and it did work. He is as well trained to stay near the house as a cat can be. We have woods behind our house and mostly our cats stay out back, rather than going in front near our very small road.

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    • I just learned that my neighbors got rid of all of their cats this summer because they were walking out in the woods and through tall grass only to return home covered in tics. One of the neighbor’s small boys pet a cat and got a tick on him, so I guess they said no more. It’s kind of sad because I wonder why they didn’t get a tick treatment for the cats or bring them inside, or something. But now they have a dog, so big shrug. Is Pippin doing okay and avoiding dangerous outdoor stuff?

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      • Pippin is doing well and stays very close to the house, as he’s timid. We have a cat door that goes into our back porch and then another cat door into the house, and he likes to sit out on the porch and watch the wildlife. Our oldest cat, Tristan, mostly sleeps on a chair on our deck these days. Our youngest cat, Melian, is a fierce hunter and spends her days stalking chipmunks in the woods.

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  4. Man fuck this house looks hilarious! I imagine it’s about an old home that just keeps costing people money – or a haunted house. Can’t wait to see if I’m right! haha

    Love those beautiful hanging baskets, how gorgeous.

    The co-pay thing for your allergy shots doesn’t entirely surprise me, we have somewhat similar things here when it comes to the kind of insurance people have through their jobs (i.e. benefits) as drugs aren’t covered here (at least not most of them) so sometimes you have to go to a special pharmacy or clinic that your benefits directs you to – you can’t just go anywhere. I assume it would be the same for allergy shots, because allergy shots wouldn’t be considered life-saving or mandatory here. But, people still have to pay for epi-pens, so I’m not entirely clearly how this works haha

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    • So far, I am totally surprised by Man, Fuck This House and have no clue what is going to happen. I love the cover and how the messed up version of the house is underneath. That WOULD be funny if it was just a worn-down house that cost someone a lot of money. Another blogger was telling me that is the basic premise of the show Ghost, which is in the UK (though there is now an American version).

      To be honest, I have very little clue as to how American health care works, but I’m even more surprised that you guys don’t have prescription benefits. That’s probably the most expensive thing we have here. IF I had to, I could cover a doctor’s visit, but when I paid $5 for the EpiPen, I saw it said something like, “Your insurance saved you $175!”

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  5. Does Kitty like the harness? When I was small there was a girl at my church who had a harness for her pet rabbit and used to take it for walks, but I have never seen a cat on a harness!

    Looking forward to your 20 Books of Summer list – it’s such a fun challenge, and I really enjoy taking part every year.

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    • She didn’t like being put into the harness, and at first, she thought she couldn’t jump. But once she got outside, it was all good! We’ve had other cats that went fully limp in a harness, but we wanted to see if she would take to it because the room she lives in is smaller. Granted, she has three windows and a glass door that are all easy to look out, but she can’t come inside because she makes my allergies even worse and she gets stressed out in big spaces and throws up everywhere. So, we wanted to see if we could expand her world a bit with a harness, and it worked!

      My 20 Books of Summer post will be up Tuesday. Slaughterhouse Five is on there! Checking one off the list, ha.

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  6. Excited to see your 20 books. And it’s such a relaxed challenge so hopefully you won’t get stressed about it. I certainly haven’t completed mine every year!
    Interesting about Kitty, we can’t take Percy out on one as he has Inflammatory Bowel Disease and is on a strict eating routine so we can’t risk him eating something weird and setting himself back outside. But I’ve had a couple of cats who had harnesses and did OK – our dear old Morgan would hear the bell on it, come running and position himself to be put in it (we had the kind that is like a jacket that wraps around his tummy and neck and chest so he couldn’t wriggle out of it. Sadly, Percy has diarrhoea and sometimes blood, so he has to live in the bathroom where it doesn’t matter so much if he gets mess on things. I couldn’t bear him getting mess on stuff in the rest of the house, which probably makes me a bad cat mum. He seems happy and his sister, who has the run of the house, is a LOT happier not getting attacked all the time. Anyway.
    The Fuck that House looks fun though I see it’s a horror-ish novel and I thought it was just living in an old house is bad enough. Ours is from 1908 and we’re about to get some work done on it – every time we discover some new awfulness!

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  7. I’m not a 20 Books of Summer (or winter) person. I never look further ahead than a couple of books and then only because I must plan reviews.
    As always I enjoy the learning involved in your interactions with the Deaf community. So much I’ve never thought of.
    Your book cover for Horror at 20,000 ft reminds me of the pioneer Australian aviator PG Taylor who on the first mail run between Australia and New Zealand, around 1930, climbed out of the plane (a tri-motor Fokker) SIX times to transfer oil between the port and starboard engines.

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    • Ever since I made my list I’ve had regrets about what is on there because I see some new review or book list, and I want to read something different. However, almost everything on my list is either school or book club books, so not much more I can squeeze in.

      Okay, if ol’ PG was outside of the metal beast, adding oil, who was flying the plane???

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  8. I love the pic of Kitty in her harness! Do you plan to take her out quite a bit or mostly just around home? The few times I have spotted people walking their cats on leash out and about, I am always delighted!

    I was playing monopoly this weekend with my kids and got some cars where I had to pay a doctor’s fee and Pearl was so confused so I was just like, “Oh, this is an American game.”

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    • We have a really big yard, so I’m going to stick to that. She goes where she wants, and I follow. I haven’t taken her out again, yet, because it’s rainy, or almost rainy (threatening grey clouds) here.

      Poor Pearl! I’m glad she doesn’t have to know the American way of scraping by medically. It is interesting how many horror stories we hear in the U.S. about how Canadians can barely access medical care because the lines are too long, waiting in the ER for 15 hours, etc.

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      • I would imagine that’s super fun for Kitty!

        I hear some of those complaints too and I’m sure some are true and likely location makes a big difference. Amongst the four of us, we’ve had great medical experiences. Peter had to wait about 3 months for an MRI once but that’s about the worst of us. Our family is also very fortunate to have insurance that covers the extra (but necessary) stuff like dentists and prescriptions and physio. Pearl’s birth alone would probably have sunk us in the US.

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        • My niece was born early and had to stay in a NICU. My sister-in-law was transported from on hospital to another via ambulance. If I remember correctly (this is from 2009), the bill was over $100,000. Eventually, it was worked out with the hospital and medicare, or something like that. So, while my brother’s family didn’t pay that much, I do believe they paid quite a chunk.

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          • That’s wild to me! I’m glad they were able to work some it out. I can’t imagine starting a family with that kind of money looming over me. With Pearl’s NICU stay and follow-up visits and me being in the hospital for the week after, I imagine we could have had a similar bill. Strangely enough, we do have to pay for ambulance rides here. The only time I’ve paid an ambulance bill it was about $80 and then our insurance covered it.

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  9. Finally a chance to sit, and to read last week’s lowdown before this week’s one lands. I had an intense week last week, so got almost no blog reading done, and only wrote my Monday one (until this morning). We are in Melbourne for our grandson’s 5th birthday today, so I just have a little time now. I’m glad you made this point “Typically, if I send out a Sunday Lowdown post late, it means I was out having a good time, not that something is wrong”. It’s good to know.

    As for that cringe-worthy behaviour of hearing people, what can you do. They mean well, but have no idea how patronising they sound. You see and hear this sort of thing all the time. For older people too, for example, as in “you’re doing well for your age”. I haven’t got there yet, but I’m bracing for it! (Assuming I WILL be be good for my age of course!!)

    I had an interesting Deaf experience this week. At least, I believe that’s what it was. I called a gardener to get a quote on helping us tidy up our garden for selling our house, and his voice on the phone sounded weird. What’s wrong with him I thought, and expressed to Mr Gums. But then on meeting him, I realised pretty quickly that he was probably hearing impaired. He had no hearing aids, but my guess is that he’s been hearing impaired all or most of his life and has a cochlear implant. Of course I didn’t ask, though I’d love to know.

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    • Ohhh, I see what you mean about the gardener. People speak how they hear and try to copy what others teach them to say when they go through speech therapy to the best of their ability. If someone was hearing as a child and starts to lose their hearing quickly, sometimes their speech will change, too. I think you basically forget what certain sounds sound like.

      Sue, I wonder if you would like the short story collection An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good. This woman who is 88 uses stereotypes about age to get away with some pretty heinous acts!

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      • Thanks Melanie. I’ve heard that if people lose their hearing after they are verbal they tend to retain some of the intonations etc that heating people use whereas those who are born hearing impaired or lose hearing in the first year or so of life tend to have flatter tones to start with? Or has that been disproven now?

        Sounds like I would like that story collection. Who is the author?

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