Thursday morning came quickly. Too bad the bus did not. It so happens 03/26/09 rain storms plagued the area overnight and into the early morning. My usual morning driver was late. It's very unusual for this particular driver to be late. It was getting close, so 30 minutes before my appointment I called the bus station. The dispatcher stated the rain storm had caused all the buses to leave the yard late, causing major delays. I was so angry about the ordeal, but tried to remain calm. I called the Dr.'s office about 10 minutes before my appointment and let them know I'd be about 10 minutes late. They said they would relay the message to my trainer. Great, now I get to meet someone who's upset I'm late. There's nothing like leaving a lasting first impression. The bus finally arrived and I raced out to my appointment. Upon arriving, I signed in and took a seat briefly before meeting Jennifer. Jennifer took me to the back of the office, shut the door, pulled out some folders and got down to business. After all.....I was late, very late.
She seemed as rushed as I felt. Turns out she did have another appointment immediately after mine. So with only about 30 minutes left of my hour long appointment we had to move swiftly. Jennifer sat down at the round table with me and asked me a series of questions about my basic life, bio, and vision. She showed me a manual that gives instructions and procedures for training to use the bioptic for driving. She and I reviewed some key terms, some driving principles, spotting techniques and assignments. Most of manuals contents shared common sense information. I was a little bored with how common sense all this seemed until her mouth uttered some shocking words. She proceeded to tell me that I would not be encouraged to read any street signs!!! She said I should rely on GPS for this sort of information. Jennifer went on to explain how I could easily get in a wreck trying to see every single street sign. Wow, I thought, how did people do this before GPS? After all, it's only been mainstream about 4 years at the most. I love gadgets so this was music to my ears. Plus, through my limited practice with the bioptic I knew reading street signs was near impossible because of the small print, angles they are placed, and crazy fonts. What a relief, I would only need to focus on things like traffic lights, warning signs, interstate signs, and speed limits. This would make things much easier.
Once we got the bioptic manual review completed we walked around to a long rectangular office. Jennifer was grabbing stuff as if we were in high school and she was fishing for books frantically out of her locker before she was marked tardy. It turns out this was her last day or two at the office. Dr. De Carlo told me at my prior appointment that Jennifer was leaving and she'd have to find someone else to replace her soon. When I realized this, I was even more thankful I had made it to the evaluation. Jennifer pulled out some flash cards and held them at about a 13 foot distance to test how well I used the bioptic. We did stationary and moving flash card test with symbols, letters, and numbers. I breezed through the test. Jennifer was confident I'd have no issues and said she was going to refer me to the next phase: a bioptic use evaluation while in a moving vehicle. Jennifer wrote down a phone number for me to call and schedule my appointment with my new instructor. I was fired up and ready for it. Too bad my new instructor was not. She would not have an appointment available till 04/14/09. My Dr. and my research had warned me all this would take time. Nine to twelve months to be exact. I was still disappointed, but knew it's a step in the right direction. Speaking of taking time, where are those papers from the Montgomery D.M.V. I need so bad? Still MIA (missing in action!) Looks like another phone call to them is in order.
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