“Cellophane in shrink film, so correct
Red dogs under illegal paws …
She looks at the detectives
“Ooh, that’s so cute. “
The tribute of Elvis Costello to film a black crime drama, “Watching the Detectives,” inadvertently became a musical tipping point as 2021 bled into 2022. On December 30, my pastor – and dear friend – dropped by for one of our regular meetings . This time, anticipating that a pinch or two might be appropriate, we avoided the more adult-friendly twilight daylight hours.
During our ‘Brotherhood of Nerds’ tours, we walk through a mix of awareness topics, including current events, family matters, and foundational memories. Of course, the role of God is still largely interwoven. Any occasional depth is counterbalanced by our detours into the foolish. Always refreshing and entertaining, our meetings serve as an invigorating and relieving pressure from life.
At one point on our first finger of whiskey that night, Pastor K said he wanted another chance to pierce me with a song that I couldn’t fit into a column. On the ride, he heard Costello’s tune and thought he better me with it. Inwardly, I laughed. Elvis is one of my favorites. I have entrusted several of his compositions to memory. The pastor’s choice of challenge happens to be one of my dearest. Immediately the two lines I opened with occurred to me.
Ironically, ALS demands flexibility and creativity in response to its crippling advances. Currently, I am prohibited from wetting my leg wounds between dressing changes. So, my tentative “correct” daily routine involves a tight “cellophane wrap” of my bandaged legs before taking a shower. The constriction of the dressings exacerbates the pre-existing risk of edema, giving my “dogs” – familiar to the feet – a reddish tinge. My limp legs should be “illegal”. Game, set, match, Pastor K.
Wait. There is more. Costello goes on to sing, “You think you’re alone until you realize you’re there.” Lately, due to my verbal limitations, our summits have taken on an emphatic monologue quality. Pastor is “alone” on stage. I am an isolated audience of one.
This would still have been the case on the 30th had it not been for the reception of my new eye gaze controlled speech generation device the day before. I was able to secure an installation and rudimentary training appointment a few hours before the pastor’s arrival. Although still a novice groping with the Tobii Dynavox technology, I was able to participate while Pasteur was here. We both realized we were “in” – a two-way conversation.
While still experimenting with the gaze capture hold time, voice volume, and audible signals confirming image selection, a delayed interaction – which at times approached spontaneity – was rendered. possible. I shared thoughts. I answered the questions. I made him laugh. It was joyful!
Beyond the fun of fellowship, the evening was a timely reminder of my three New Year’s resolutions. The mental dissection of Costello’s song fulfilled both my promise of a vigilant war on pressure ulcers and my aspiration to master the living art of augmented communication. Oddly enough, my second sample of whiskey, from a bottle of Angel envy, was a mnemonic for my third pledge to double on God.
Proving that life is constantly being added, an epilogue circumstance arose last night. Yesterday was Tobii’s second training session. My kind instructor has boldly guided me here and there through the world of eye-driven internet exploration. It also enabled many common apps, and a few specific to my needs and use.
The desktop portal is accessible, literally in the blink of an eye, from the power-on screen. Once inside, gaze and cursor swipe control is available. Mouse actions, such as single or double click, scroll, copy and paste, can thus be directed via an adjustable vision fixture. If necessary, a keyboard can be overlaid and accessible from a set of pages.
It will take some time to get used to this new way of surfing the Internet. Practice will be essential. Fortunately, a few of the apps are entertainment-focused, so your time doesn’t have to be tedious.
With that in mind, after my tutoring ended, I decided to try streaming something from HBO. I thought the plethora of network programming options would provide plenty of possibilities for mouse manipulation. In addition, I was able to check the audio and video quality of the unit.
After going through HBO’s vast library, I found my first set of scroll and click reps sufficient. From my new and expanded knowledge of the content, I chose a series in honor of Pastor K. I started watching “Real detectives. “Season 1 stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. I have to admit that with these two leading the cast,“ It’s so cute. ”
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