Changes

Greetings. AS I sit here in the midst of packing for 3 weeks and with my last bit of laundry in the dryer, I can't help but think of the changes that will be taking place over the next 24 to 48 hours. When riding home on the bus this afternoon, someone said to me, "Have a good weekend." Have a good weekend? This quite possibly could be one of the biggest understatements of the year! After all, this morning I was talking with a student who is a guide dog user, about the pending trip and how working with a dog is great (not to say that canes aren't great too, but they're all just tools to be used in different circumstances), and I couldn't help but think that today I was talking with a student about dog use, but by Monday, I'll be receiving my own dog. Much less that the next 18-24 hours I'll be finishing my packing, getting up way early for an early morning flight to New Jersey, somehow occupying myself on that 3 hour plus flight, meeting new and old friends at students and staff at The Seeing Eye, and walking back into a place that I wasn't sure I wanted to return to after my first dog died. And that just takes us up to tomorrow early afternoon. We're not even counting the initial work with the instructor, getting to meet and mingle with other blind people from around the country who are all there for the same reason, all the emotions and feelings wrapped up in all this, and getting to play and perhaps work with some dogs in training on Sunday afternoon. And, oh yeah, there's also getting my dog, my very own Seeing Eye dog, again, on monday. "Have a good weekend"--you bet! In fact, it might even be a great weekend!

It's interesting to reflect on how far I've come in the last 2 years since Tony died, where I've come from over the last 13 years since I was first matched with him, and where we are now. I just hope I can be a good role model for the first timer students that are in class for their first dogs. I have no doubts about this, but it's still mind blowing to think that I was once in that position as well. Oh, if I only knew then what I know now, but that's what they call hine sight, or however you spell that. I also hope that I'm wise enough not to make the same mistakes with the new dog that I might have made with Tony. And, if I can get a dog that even comes close to matching me like Tony did, then I'll be happy as well.

So, this is the reflective, anxious, excited, and anticipative Wayne, signing off. We'll talk again perhaps when I'm traveling, but definitely in Morristown, New Jersey!