I went to bed at 6 AM and get up at 9 AM and spent the entire day running laps around the house and yard. Mowed and weedwhacked the front yard, was on the ladder clearing another rain gutter, and did some house cleaning.
Was up all night putting together a submission for Breath & Shadow. I didn’t want to go to bed until I got it done and I sent to the editor.
I ordered a couple pairs of safety glasses, and they arrived today, but not before I finished weedwhacking.
Almost a year ago, I called my credit card company to try resolving an issue I was having. After my credit card company hung up on me, the Relay flagged me for fraudulent activity and had me banned from using the relay service.
I filed a discrimination complaint against the relay service. The relay service finally responded eight months later. In their response, they admitted that they shared judgments about me with my credit card company and advised my credit card company to hang up.
I gave the government investigator a lot of information and evidence that show how the relay service was committing acts of discrimination against the Deaf community. Two months later, the investigator tells me the relay service did not commit any acts of discrimination because I was not treated differently than others who use “relay services”.
The issue isn’t whether I was treated differently from other Relay users, the issue is whether I was treated differently from hearing people who do not need to use a relay service. I clearly was treated differently than a hearing person would have been treated.
Hearing people do not need a Relay between them and their credit card company, who can advice the credit card company to hang up. Deaf people need a Relay between them and their credit card company, and if the Relay advices the credit card company to hang up, how is that not discrimination?
Those of us in the Deaf community believe that relay services are there to accommodate us, that relay operators do not make judgments about us, that their sole purpose is to make it possible for us to communicate over the phone.
The government’s Department of Civil Rights just demonstrated to me how the system continues to fail the Deaf community.
I’m feeling a lot of anger toward hearing people right now.
Just finished weed-whacking. Whacker threw a stone that hit me in the eye. (My eye is fine. Don’t panic.) Got all the yardwork done, until next weekend.
Tigers let the Yankees sweep them. They “might” have turned it around if the last inning wasn’t cancelled due to rain.
The struggles of PoC, the LGBTQ+ community, women, the Deaf community, People with Disabilities, etc, should all be acknowledged together and the fight for civil rights, inclusion, justice, equality, for all should be happening now. None should be waiting for their turn. All should be in this fight together, working together to make the changes. All need to be heard.
I’m angry that I can’t walk anywhere without worrying that the police will detain me again. It’s hard for me to be friends with people who oppose the peaceful protests against police harassment and brutality of marginalized people. Marginalized people see and feel the world differently than the majority does and we recognize things the majority doesn’t consider or care about.
Not liking the country and wanting the country to do better are two different things. I love this country, but I want it to do better.
This was a very good day. I was pretty tired all day, but I feel real good. I got every done at around 7, then sat on the porch for a while. Think I’m gonna go to bed soon.
Most hearing people refer to the Deaf as hearing impaired. But people in the deaf community prefer “Deaf” or “Hard of Hearing”.
There are deaf people who are not involved in the deaf community who might refer to themselves as “hearing impaired”.
I often refrain from pointing this out because I don’t think anyone’s going to take me seriously. When I went to hearing schools, we were always called “hearing impaired”, even in the special class for the deaf kids and that’s how I used to refer to myself.
When I went to Michigan School for the Deaf, one of the first things I learned is how much deaf people dislike the term “hearing impaired”.
I’m reading what I had down for the novel I’d left unfinished since Jan 2019, to get back into the story.
It’s not about what I thought it was about. I’d thought it was about a young family in their new home. Instead, it’s about a widower in his late-60’s or early-70’s. His wife had just died. His kids are grown and have families of their own. He’s living in the house that he and wife had lived in for thirty years and he has to adjust to her not being there anymore. Among other things.
I’m reading this and I can’t believe I wrote it. This is probably my best writing. Now I remember why I stopped working on it in Jan 2019. It was too hot to handle. I felt a sort of pressure when writing it and it was overwhelming and exhausting me.
I hope I can finish it in the same tone that I started it.
I looked through my stockpile. I now have only two novels that were left unfinished. One since May 2018 and the other since January 2019, according to the last modified dates.
I’m going to start working on the Jan 2019 one. It’s a stand-alone novel and not part of a series, like the May 2018 one.
I was 73 pages/15,513 words into it when I stopped working on it in Jan 2019. We’ll see how long it takes me to finish it.
I just finished another novel, 225,670 words and 1,105 pages. This is by far the longest book I’ve ever written. It’s the third book of a series. I wanted to get the damn series done and over with, so I covered a lot of ground in the third book and brought the story to a close in an epilogue that left me with an aching heart.
I don’t remember exactly when I started the series. It was either late 2002 or early 2003. Possibly, I started it January 1st, 2003. I remember launching new projects at the beginning of each year when I was younger. I know that I was working on Book One all through 2003. I remember where I was and what was going on in my life while writing certain chapters of Book One.
I got most of the way through Book One, and then I just stopped. I wrote and finished other novels and didn’t get back to this series until, according to a blog entry, April 2019. I finished Book One, and then Book Two, and now Book Three.
Book One: 707 pages/141,821 words. Book Two: 499 pages/100,587 words. Book Three: 1,105 pages/225,670 words.
The damn series is done. Took me twenty-one years.