I have a stubborn streak. Surprise! My ex used to say I was the second most stubborn person he had ever met. My mother was number one. Sometimes it serves me well and sometimes it bites me in the $@#^.

When it serves me well, it allows me to be as independent as I want to be. My children call it “Cindypendence”. I draw on that stubbornness to attempt all the activities I want to engage in as a single, blind woman. When it bites me, it bites hard. However, I will bite it right back. I want to share a couple of examples of Cindypendence.

I told you I hosted my first dinner party. It was a huge success even though two fingers are bandaged. As you know, I brought very little with me when I left my past life. My new house has a dining room and I love having a dining room. My new dining room furniture arrived, the table was set beautifully (with my new multi use dishes) but I don’t have a chandelier yet in the dining room. I think, no problem, I’ll buy a couple of candles. They will provide a little bit of light for my sighted friends and will create a lovely atmosphere at the table. Who would have thought candles would be double wrapped in structural plastic? Who would have thought sharp knives were required to remove the wrapping? I have learned that pain in the fingers and a dripping on the counter when unwrapping candles sealed tighter than weapons of mass destruction usually means bandages are required.

My new house has a pool in the back yard. I hire a teenage boy from down the street to vacuum the pool weekly. When school started, he was quite busy for a couple of weeks and was not able to help me out. Smartie pants that I am, I thought I could easily vacuum the pool. My son came over to do a couple of things for me and I asked him to set up the pool vacuum and I would vacuum while he did the jobs for me. I took my time, made sure I covered all of the pool a couple of times and believed that I had done a great job. The last couple of swipes with the vacuum were at the widest part of the kidney shaped pool. I leaned over the edge to make sure I covered all of the area under the vacuum, and “plop”. My iPhone fell out of its case and landed at the bottom of the pool. By the time I got my son and he fished it out, it had been swimming in salt water for a good five minutes. Yes, we tried the rice thing. But it was dead and needed to be buried. I was totally lost without my iPhone - I use it to listen to music while I walk or do house work. I use it to listen to books. I use it to text (constantly) and I use it to tell time, check the weather forecast, time things in the oven, schedule my calendar, read the newspaper, plot my progress on knitting projects, read email, shop online, ..... Those of you who love iPhones as much as I do will understand. Thank goodness for Rogers. I called, explained my disaster and a new phone arrived 3 days later. Three days of feeling lost, but I am back in the world of connection and have learned that perhaps my phone needs to stay in the house while I work around the pool.