Category: Let's talk
Hello all and thank you for looking at this post.
was just wondering if any other blind people live alone.
I have been on my own for the most part since I was 17 well I started leaving home at 14 but got my first place a little before I was 18.
I owned my own place for about 5 years but keeping up on the maintenance got to be a bit much so now I’m living out hear in Ohio in my own apartment near some family and the only thing that is really hard is all the paper work most of my bills I can take care over the internet but like I said was just wondering how many people live on there own it's not easy and my hat off to those that do.
Well I live on my own - its a shared flat but I pay my way just like the others... and do my share of things LOL
Good on you Zentar I lived alone at uni and it was daunting, I think the term is character building, smile. Things were fine once I labouriously learned the layout ect,until it was decided that the long terms students, would hand over our rooms to the new intake,man that was a hassle but it was just a question of time and perseverence..smile
I lived alone for 3 years almost until my fiance moved in.
Paid a person to come help me with some of the cleaning and reading my mail 2 to 3 hours a week and go grocery shopping with me (I don't like shopping with an assistant unless Ihave to, I like trying out things, check through the specials etc).
No, it's not easy but it's doable, espeecially ifyou live in a condo or town house where, at lesat the exterior maintenance and lawn etc are taken care of for you. ;)
cheers
-B
I live on my own in an apartment... some things are more challenging (sometimes I make a mess and don't realize it)... I ask friends to take me shopping when they need to go. Usually we need similar things (except I need cat stuff and most of them don't). I have several friends can call to go grocery shopping with me, so it's not always one person.
I moved out in to an apartment when I was 18 and lived in a few different complex's for about 6 years then I bought a house in 99 were I live now, bills were a little tricky at first but most utilities have automated phone services and I could call and check my balances. Now that most of that is online it is even easier. I use online banking and bill pay with my bank and that makes all the difference in the world.
I've used a few of the online grocery delivery services over the years such as albertsons, peapod and groceryworks. and as B said I've had someone go to the store with me as well. Schwans is another cool online food delivery service that I use but they can be a bit pricy.
with my house I've had an ongoing deal with a neighbor, he kept his boat in my garage and in return he did my yard. that was going fine in the beginning but then he just started putting all kinds of stuff in there and not really keeping up with the yard.
I actually mowed the back yard a few weeks ago with a tractor. lol. it's just a small gardin tractor but it worked.
Well Zentar, I have nto lived alone yet but I will soon. It will be a great challenge which I am a bit nervous about, but I guess I will manage.
so glad to hear others are living alone, yes it can be very challinging and very hard i guess thats why i posted this to hear it is being done and hearing others idea is great thanks.
Although I am not living alone now, I used to off and on. each situation has their good and bad points and such. Thing is, even when I lived with other folks I was one who kept to myself and could keep myself entertained and happy without needing other people around all the time.
yeah. I meanI really wouldn#T know if I would manage to be alone. Lol but we'Ll see.
i want to live with my fiance and we've applied on the housing list, the next stage is, where mum has to write a letter saying she'll throw us out by this date, in order to get a house quicker, but getting her to do it is a challenge. She says it's hard, and now i'm considering doing the letter myself and getting her to sign it, but i don't honestly know how to word it, etc. it's hard.
Yeah, I can imagine. My mother would throw me out gladly, and I would be thrown up gladly. Lol
I have been on my own before
and hope to get back on my on again
yes you are right about having some one to take you to the store
i took cabs and went with friends
to go places it was hard to read your mail to so i know how it feels to
hope that this helps
yeah, it's even hard to read your print mail when living with parents, i've had 3 letters now that mum hasn't read to me, even though i've asked her too on countless ocations. i do have a scanner, but don't have the software installed on this computer to use it.
I don't approve of people living alone. If you're in a house of your own, you should find some poor person from a poor country who is homeless, and let them share your house. That's the nicest thing a person who lives alone could do.
so when that person who doesn't speak English, or possibly doesn't know the customs, and you end up getting themd eported because you've thought up this insane idea in the first place, what do you do then, save the world? The idea is nice enough, your thought process, sucks.
I agree with you Velle...anyway, I've been on my own for about three years now; i'll have had this apartment for a year in may. Thankfully, i have a little bit of useable vision so I can manage to read the mail and such but what really helps is online bill pay and also, my sorority sisters call me up whenever they're going to the store to see if i need anything or if I'd like to go with them. In turn, I buy them lunch or give them gas money so they don't feel like they're just dragging me around everywhere.
I think, speaking as a woman, that the only down side to living alone is that it can be scarey sometimes, especially when you can't see well. Two weeks ago, a man tried to break in to my apartment...it was really scarey but thankfully, my dog Abbie scared him away.
Anyway, there's my opinion.
~bella
True, Vel. I mean it is a nice idea, but even, if that person is living of your money ...
well I mean if you are rich and have a large house that might be okay. But if you are a normal worker and you would let someone in ... hmmmm, that'd be difficult.
I have a question. Has anyone heard of a volunteer service where someone comes to your house a few times a week and helps you with your mail? I thought I heard something like that a few years ago.
I've lived on my own since I was 17. I love it. I also live at least 3 hours away from my nearest family member, which I find incredibly relaxing, but a bit annoying in emergency situations. As for the volunteer thing. Here in L.A. we have the Braille Institute. You can call ahead and set up an appointment with someone and they'll help you read mail, fill out forms, etc. I don't use it much since like most of you I do my stuff online, but it is handy sometimes.
lol. is that waskelly wangel serious! that's the funnyist thing I've red in a long time! Umm yeah, right!
I have been on my own in my apartment since July of this year. It's wonderful! I get most of my bills through email like cable and cell phone, I also get my electric bill in braille which is a service you can request provided by our power company.
As far as mail goes I use openbook to read my mail. The stuff I do have trouble reading though are like notes from Maintenance because those are hand written but I usually get someone to read me those.
Troy
I don't live alone yet, and choose not to for awhile, both for financial and safety reasons/concerns. But I've thought about it at times. Although this probably doesn't count as much, I do have my own room outside the house, and I like it alright. All I need now is a small restroom and a kitchen area with several small cooking appliances and for my mom to stop jumping on my case on how I choose to clean my room, and I got it made, in a way. *smiles* When I get mail, I usually use OpenBook to read the typed ones and my parents read the handwritten ones if I ask. I also have a color identifier thing so I don't think washing clothes would be a big thing if I needed to wash my own clothes. (The only reason I don't here is because we wash all our clothes together.) And I could also deal with cooking and cleaning also. The thing that could get confusing if I lived alone are keeping track of all the bills and payments one has to pay, finding a job, navigating unfamiliar places when I had to go to them, and the fact that I would have to plan all my trips.
i'm not directly living alone but pretty much like living alone. i've 2 house mates, but we having communication problem. they can't speak fluent english, and i know nuts about Korean. thats why,... i'm alone most of the time.
sometime is good when i needs my own little world or so call private time. but yet, when i needs someone to talk with, i'm pretty much feeling lonely and alone.
I've been living on my own ever since I went to the university in 92. things were pretty tough in the beginning but I got used to it eventually. Now, I am very happy to be on my own and I pretty much do everything by myself. As far as grocery shopping, I usually go with friends, same regarding clothes shopping. Most of my bills are paid automatically out of my account but that's my choice as I often happen to be gone for long periods of time.
i've lived on my own for a while paying bills, grocerys and clothes i do that on my own now cus my friends don't want to help me out any more but my boyfriend wants to do everything for me sometimes i wish he was around but i'm glad hes not cus if he was i would depend on him all the time and i can't do that i need to depend on my self. blind people can't depend out others alot i leared that the hard way so all i do is depend on my self and i'm fine with that.
Yes I live on my own in a one bedroom house with my cat. Her name is Oreo. I admit that I am jobless dult and that I have some help paying off some of my bills from my family who lives in the area as well as there help with transporatation. Since there is no such thing here for the blind or visually imapired, you can safely assume that I live in a backwater town with hardly nothing in it. haha!
I learned all my living skills from PSP (Post Secondary Program in Austin TX). Cleaning, Paying Bills, Cooking, Budgeting, and all that other fun shit. (sarcastic)
I've also learned all my blindess skill from CCRC (Criss Cole Rehabilitation Center in Austin TX). Like technology, mobility, cooking yes I did it there to, Braille, career guidence, and woodshop. I'm not toatally blind but it was mandatory that I learned them since I have Glaucoma and that the risk of me possibly going blind in the future.
JAWS I could never get down so if I end up going blind I'll be fucked as far as technology uses go.
The sad thing is. Is that the teacher in charge of my technology class got so impatient with me trying to learn JAWS. she graduated me out of that class. All the Criss Cole Training was done under blindfold.
I learned a lot of my living skills from CCRC also, although Blindness Seminar, Wood Shop, and O&M didn't help much. *smile* For me, there wasn't much point to Blindness Seminar most of the time, I would still never use power tools (although I am proud of the fact that I made something there), and the only O&M skills I use are calling a place for information. I don't like traveling alone thru or to a place I don't know and would rather just have someone go with me or (if possible) have my O&M instructor from here teach me the routes, and of course, the bus and address system is not the same as Austin's, so yeah. The rest of the classes were alright though.
My favorite classes, well, the ones I think I got the most out of, were the Money Management and Organization one, and the Home Maintenance one. In fact, I have several address books and need to start a check register thing (since I'm now paying for two things regularly), and I wish I remembered exactly what I learned in Home Maintenance, as I hadn't had a chance to have to fix anything yet. I also learned some skills from that summer work program at TSB like being responsible for some chores and calling for and meeting the taxi to get to work. Knowing that I had a job to get to and that I was going there on my own felt good. *smile* And it was also cool earning a check, even though it was from the program and not the job site itself, I think.
Yeah I enjoyed the summer programs at TSBVI as well. I was in Tech Camp 99, then 2 of the work programs (2000 and 2001), then WALIC (2002), and then the SWEAT program (2003). I didn't like the SWEAT Program to only because, you only got a mere 25 dollars for the work you had to put out. The chores i had to around the dorm helped as well, actually I think it made it alot easier when I got into PSP and Criss Cole in August 2003. I tell ya what the best thing about Criss Cole was the graduation although sometimes I miss it.
Did they pay off around 100 dollars in the work programs, can't remeber if they did or not.