NAME: Setting up your home.mp3 DATE: 2023-04-24 TRANSCRIPT: 0:00:09 Jonathan: You're listening to an AINC original podcast. We believe you don't have to do life without a compass. Let us be your guide on this amazing journey. Welcome to Navigating life with Vision Loss You. 0:00:26 Kim: Hello and welcome to Navigating Life with Vision Loss. I'm your host, Kim Wardlow. I'm also the executive director at the Audio Information Network of Colorado, just bringing you this podcast. So this month we have been looking at various aspects of housing. And last week we talked about home repair and maintenance and things you should look for when you're buying a home before you move in or if you're renting a new apartment, different things that you should look out for in that process. 0:01:05 Kim: And today we are back with James Daigle from the loveland handy guy. And we're going to be focusing a little bit more more on home safety and functionality. So we touched on that last week, but we'll really get into that topic a little bit more as soon as we return. 0:01:26 Jonathan: This is Navigating life with vision loss. If you have a question, please visit us@aincolorato.org podcastguest. Make sure to subscribe to all of our podcasts so you don't miss a single episode. And now here's your host, Kim Wardlow. 0:01:45 Kim: Hello, James. Thank you for joining me again this week for our show, our podcast, and giving us some tips on home safety and functionality. 0:01:56 James: Oh, Kim, it's great to talk to you and I'm glad that I can help some way. And hopefully these little bits of advice will save a Band Aid or two from being open. 0:02:07 Kim: Yeah, well, and last week we talked about things to look for prior to moving into a new home or apartment. But of course, even if things are pristine and perfect when you move in over time, over the years, things break. There's problems and always, of course, we need to consider safety issues in our homes. So I'm thinking maybe we just start by going room to room or start with maybe the rooms that have the most likelihood of problems. 0:02:45 James: I think of the kitchen because there are so many things in our kitchen and appliances and things that we're trying to do in our kitchen that that can be a real area where we might see problems or have safety concerns. 0:03:03 Kim: Yeah, I was gabbing this week with a friend lives up in Fort Collins who's visually impaired. And one of the things that concerns him is doors that are open that weren't open, or closet cabinet doors that don't close correctly. So I think we spoke a little bit about it last week, but there are self closing hinges that can be put onto cabinets. Of course, if you think that it's closed and you turn and you lift up from the bottom and you bang your head on the cabinet, it's going to cause problems. So addressing the ones that you use all the time, having someone help you install permanent closures that force the cabinet to close will stay open. It fully open, but once you start to touch it, it won't stop three quarters of the way back. It would close it all the way. 0:03:56 James: To me, that's a big thing to address. And the same with doors. There are closing and pieces for doors to make sure your door is closed, or if you want to leave it open, there are wedges that you can put in place that you know are there and that way you're not using it all the time. The other thing is that in many houses I've lived in, I've actually taken doors out that I never use. Like a door between a kitchen and. 0:04:24 Kim: I thought about that. 0:04:25 James: Yeah, a door between a kitchen and a hallway that it's always in the open position and you don't need it for heat loss. So why not take it out, store it in the basement, or store it in a closed closet if you're renting the place, and that way you'd never worry about having to open and close that door. Maybe that door opens in front of another cabinet and it's always a bit of a pain if you take it off by the hinges and put it aside. 0:04:52 James: No landlord will ever mind that you did that and that you put it back when you're moving out. 0:04:59 Kim: Yeah, that's good advice. I never thought about actually removing a door. But definitely the issue with cabinets being open, because sometimes, even if you're closing the cabinets, if you are living with other people, they may not always close them. And that can be a rude surprise if you aren't able to see that it's open and hit your head. So having those self closing cabinets is a really good idea. 0:05:25 James: Yeah, to me that's big on the list because it is always a situation where you come in and those that are bugged by open doors will always be bugged by it. But you're right when you say roommates. We think sometimes, oh, everyone lives by themselves. Well, if you're married, you have a roommate and you can't get rid of that roommate. Hopefully that roommate will have to learn how to adapt to what you want open or closed, where you want things in position. 0:05:59 James: So, yeah, Home Depot, all of those stores sell additional closures. So even if the cabinet has self closing hinges and you want it to move a little bit quicker with what it's doing, it has these little attachments, a couple of screws and it's on the cabinet door and you're feeling much better for a long time. 0:06:24 Kim: What about other areas in the kitchen? I'm just thinking of things like sinks. 0:06:30 James: Yeah. 0:06:32 Kim: Plumbing issues. 0:06:33 James: Well, one of the things that bugs me is a smell from a garbage disposal. Now a lot of places have double sinks and there are people that don't use a garbage disposal. They like to scrape it into the trash can and leave it at that. And they don't use a garbage disposal enough and the garbage disposal will start to smell because there's food that just didn't quite get washed out enough inside. There the other issue with garbage disposal. I've had friends who have put their hand in to pull a ring out or something that got knocked off the counter into it, and they're leaning on the counter at the same time they hit the button. 0:07:17 Kim: That's scary. 0:07:18 James: It was. They lost a little chunk of their finger. They didn't realize how sharp it was. Well, yes, if it can grind up food, it can grind up a finger. So I'm not a big fan of garbage disposals personally for the fact that my wife's beautiful spoons that she had as a little girl got knocked into the garbage disposal and the kids turned it on to get rid of something, and they heard this grinding noise, so they left it on longer and it ruined these beautiful silver spoons. 0:07:47 Kim: Yes. 0:07:48 James: I think that it's just as easy to clean a strainer and drop it in. So garbage disposals are one of those things that, to me, no one should ever reach their hand into it, because what could happen is it could be jammed with something and you pull that or you pull the spoon, and then that starts it in motion. So that could certainly ruin an evening or a few days to come. So I'm a big fan of taking them out. I don't necessarily think they're required, and if not, then you put a little lemon in it from time to time to get rid of the smell. 0:08:26 James: But that's my beef with garbage disposals. 0:08:31 Kim: Yeah. And I know you have to be careful, certain things not to put in that can jam it. 0:08:38 James: Well, one thing, rice. People put rice, like, a lot of times, unused rice. Unused rice that was left over, they wash it out, it doesn't quite get soaked, so it doesn't expand until it gets in the drain. And then when it gets in the drain, it sits there. And what does rice do when it gets wet? It expands. So I've seen countless number of clogged sinks that are just completely full of rice, especially someone who really likes rice and has it on a more regular basis. 0:09:12 James: Their drains underneath the sink get clogged quite regularly. It doesn't hurt like every so many months just to have your sink drain cleaned, just to flush it out to make sure it's moving. But, yeah, rice a lot of small particles catching the sink drains. They're not very big. If I was design them, I'd design them with a two inch trap, not an inch and a quarter trap, which a little more space for movement. But, yeah, sink drains clog up and then they start to drip and then they make a mess of everything you have down below it. 0:09:50 Kim: So if you move into a new place, have that checked to make sure that there's not a lot of hair. Bathroom sinks. We'll go into the bathroom in a minute. But the kitchen sink, I would have it checked from time to time if it's not something you can do yourself. 0:10:05 James: Right. And I know in addition to putting some lemon in, I know there's products you can purchase that are for garbage disposals, just to drop in to try to clean that and prevent some smell as well. The lemon is probably more environmental. 0:10:25 Kim: Yeah, I think because people have leftover lemon, but don't put the lemon in the garbage disposal because that doesn't work very well. You just put the juice. 0:10:33 James: Juice, yeah. 0:10:34 James: It doesn't do well with lemons or oranges, that type of stuff, because of the way the fiber of the outer shell just seems to get jammed under the blades. Your garbage disposal is just a little fancier blender. Basically, if you look at break it down, it looks like a blender under your sink. 0:10:58 Kim: Other safety issues in the kitchen electrical issues. 0:11:04 James: Gas stoves electric, yes. Being visually impaired, I'm not sure someone is visually impaired if a gas stove is a perfect answer. But putting a carbon monoxide detector in the kitchen, even though it might trigger a little bit more if you're living by yourself and you have visual issues, would definitely be a plus because you're not going to smell that gas if you accidentally leave it on or you bump the knob and it stays on. 0:11:43 James: They do put a little smell into it, but depends. I'm an ex hockey player. I don't have a lot of smell anymore. I broke my nose three times, so my wife will. So I stopped wearing cologne. I don't wear too much if I don't wear it, that type of thing. I would make sure that the knobs are turning and locking correctly. Stove companies, what's really funny is not funny, but we moved into a house from one and the knobs went in the opposite direction. 0:12:14 James: And my wife would always leave them on really low, thinking she turned them off. And I went in one time, there was a dirty cast iron pan. I went to clean it. I grabbed it with my hand to move it over to the sink. You couldn't see the flame because it was just on a tiny, tiny simmer. But that pan burnt. A little lodge mark in my palm for a little while. 0:12:38 James: Had a brand for a while. 0:12:41 James: Yeah. So I would touch things. People that like to cook know their limitations. Cutting boards, for instance, and knives. I do like those, and I'm not sure the name of it, but it's a little metal piece you put on your finger and it prevents you when you're cutting from cutting into your finger, even though, like with cucumbers and things like that, you bend your knuckles forward. But we still all make mistakes sometimes, so they have little gadgets like that. So if a friend drops off a gadget for you, take it with open arms and try it out. But knives, putting them back in the same spot every single time. 0:13:22 James: We talked about my going to Julia Child's kitchen and everything she had in her kitchen was labeled. And it wasn't so much that she was lazy, it was so that she knew exactly where everything went every time and she could find it. So with knives, if you have a drawer that has cut in sections that the knife goes into it rather than sits loosely, that's safe. The block that sits on your counter where they go back in the same spot every time. 0:13:49 James: Or as we were talking about earlier in the green room, sliding it under the cutting board to do that, and that may be putting little pieces of those, what I call chair felt under the cutting board, which allows you a little gap that you could slide your knife in. And you know that it's always where you put it when you reach back for it. 0:14:12 Kim: Another option for knives that I have seen, although I have not tried it yet, are magnetic covers, where you just have two pieces. I think some of them are large sheet and you can cut to the size you need. Others, I think you can order pre sized for different types of knives, but they're just thin magnetic sheets and one goes on either side of the knife blade and so then that sharp blade is enclosed inside the COVID Like I said, I haven't tried that myself to know how easy it is to get the covers on and off. 0:14:49 Kim: But it sounds like it would protect a blade in a drawer if they were loose. 0:14:56 James: Oh, yes, I agree, in sheet covers. And again, it's based on whether you live alone or you live with a roommate, because if your roommate is using it, putting it back, you want to really make sure that they know that you need it back in the same spot. And it's not that you're being anal or being a jerk about it, it's that this protects you. This is where I know this is going to be. This is where I know that the key is for my cars go back on the same hook every single time. 0:15:25 James: All those little things that I'm sure a lot of the schools teach. Again, as you talk roommates, you know, I forget because I haven't really had a roommate that wasn't somebody I was accountable to. Having that communication and that understanding that everything needs to be back in the same spot. The broom needs to go on a hook that goes behind the door, not loose, because the last thing you'd want to do is push the broom behind the kitchen door. It slides down, the person trips over it. 0:15:57 James: So it should be on a hook, the dust pan should be on a hook. Everything should have a spot and I think that when we talked about Julia Child's kitchen, everything in that room had a place and a hook and a handle for it. Nothing was sitting loose on the counter and she knew exactly where it was. Now, she wasn't blind, but it was the fact that she wanted to reach quickly for something. So we apply that principle. 0:16:25 James: I think we make a safer and a more enjoyable experience. 0:16:30 Kim: What about dishwashers? 0:16:33 James: Dishwashers? Well, one of my short quick stories is that one of my friend's husband had a mild stroke, fell onto the dishwasher while he was loading it. And they always loaded the forks up. And she had to drive him to the hospital with a fork buried into his rib because he was a good sized guy. When he fell on the dishwasher, the fork was in the up position because they wanted that to get cleaner. Because sometimes you put them down in the dishwasher, there's still little bacteria left on the fork where it touched the plastic holder. 0:17:10 James: But we need to think of if we did slip, if we did fall, some people put rugs in front of going from the dishwasher, making sure that the door is always closed so that it couldn't fall down a little bit, so you don't bump into it. So again, it goes back to the team play that you have a roommate, you're part of a team. We need to do it this way. I'm expecting the door to be closed to the dishwasher, not down. 0:17:37 James: Don't leave it down because you're going to run upstairs and come back a little bit later. That needs to go up for me. I need it to be safe. So going into that team approach to things and also having someone help you get used to a house a little bit when you move in. 0:17:57 Kim: Right? 0:17:58 James: So I think all that stuff comes into play. And that makes it safe because you have to think of yourself and you have to think of what could hurt me. Extension cords running across to a microwave if they're not taped down to the floor. One, they shouldn't be done that way, but anything you're doing like that should be taped down to the floor so you don't pull it off, you don't trip on it again. Going back to brooms being hung on the door, if that's where they're being stored, rather than being mops. Brooms, anything that's put loosely into a wall or behind a refrigerator can fall out, right? 0:18:38 James: So all that type of stuff I think, is very important. Making sure that we were going to talk about electrical outlets, making sure that the outlets around the kitchen sink are GPS rated, so that's having it tested when you move in or going over it with the landlord. Because if those aren't GPS rated, then GFI, I think it's called GP. What am I saying? GPS. Sorry. But those need to be safe so that if the blender you're using falls into a wet sink, it doesn't electrocute you're. Same in your bathroom. When you're using a hairdryer next to that sink, that outlet needs to be rated correctly. 0:19:21 Kim: So maybe moving on then to the bathroom. We kind of touched on clogged sinks, toilets, rugs, other types of potential problems or safety issues. 0:19:38 James: So a couple of things happen. We buy things, and we're told that these safety wipes or baby wipes are all biodegradable. Well, they might be biodegradable, but they don't biodegrade quick enough for a drain. So those really need to go into a laundry basket. Just recently, an apartment that I own, the tenant called, and the toilet wasn't flushing, and we got gabbing with her, and the gentleman came over to flush out the main drain line, and he pulled out all these baby wipes. 0:20:12 James: Oh, she said, I started using those to help me with makeup when I get home, so on and so forth. And she puts them in the toilet because they're kind of dirty, and unfortunately, they don't break down quick enough, and they end up causing a clog factor. People that put in big wards of toilet paper versus folding it neatly and using one little piece at a time or whatever that can clog. So when you move into an apartment fresh, that should be checked. 0:20:43 James: But knowing what you put down there. I had done some work in nursing homes, and the nurses for a while were putting diapers down the drain. Well, oh my. It doesn't take long before you have a major flood in the bathroom. If you put a diaper down the drain, it might go down. Yes, a lot of things might go down, but that will cause a flood. Hair, makeup in a bathroom sink, that's probably something every six months if you have longer hair, to have somebody check the bathroom sink, because that's what starts to clog. 0:21:22 James: Like I said, to me, they're not perfectly designed because they're an inch in diameter. And stuff catches the same way that things catch on a gutter in the street. As the leaves roll down, the leaves catch a rock, they start to back up. The next thing, you have a pile of leaves there. So our drain pipe works the same way. Little things catch, and then it just adds up. So to prevent leaks like that, if you've got a sink that's drippy, the faucets drippy, those knobs can be tightened. And if it's not something that you or your roommate can do, then you have somebody come in and adjust. It prevents weight, water loss. But also, if you went away for the weekend and something clogged the sink that drip would eventually become a flood. 0:22:08 James: So those type of things, rubber mats that we put on the floor. Some people buy rugs that aren't really rated for bathrooms, and they look really cute. But when they step out of the tub or the shower, they step on something that slides, and you have a huge problem with that. So making sure that the mat that you're putting down your bath matt a rubber backing to it, and it does not slide. I lost a friend in the bathroom. 0:22:35 James: She was getting ready to go to a wedding when I was in My, she slid and hit the bathroom sink, and they figured that it was the rug she had in the bathroom just slid out on her. That was really tragic. We think of just getting bopped, but bathroom sinks are pretty sharp cornered and pretty solid. So we don't want anyone falling in a bathroom over a prettier rug than the basics that are used. 0:23:06 Kim: Right. 0:23:07 James: So, unfortunately, that's why they put rubber on the bottom of a bathroom mat so that it doesn't slide. So having that for someone knowing if they have a glass door that opens and closes in the bathroom shower, that's going to be a concern, would be a concern for me, because those have a tendency to slide open, and walking into one of those is going to really hurt, especially glass. And sometimes they have metal edge corners. So making sure that's closed, making sure your roommate knows that it needs to close. And if it doesn't close, have somebody adjust it. 0:23:44 James: It's usually a few screws that change the tilt of the door, and that's why the door slides to one side or the other, and it stays open or open slowly. And if you're used to it being closed and you walk into that because you do not see it, that's not going to be fun for me. Yeah. And then we have hairdryers. If you're going to leave a hairdryer plugged into the wall, have someone install a hook so that you put that hairdryer back on a hook that it's not laying across the floor and accidentally gets kicked and then you trip over the cord. 0:24:24 James: So I prefer to leave my hairdryer out. My wife puts it back every day. Drives me nuts, but I live with it. My deal, if I could, I would put a hook on the wall and that hairdryer, all of them have a little hook on the back of them where the handle is. Little eye hook, and then you could just hook that on the wall and, you know, every time it's where it is, and you don't have to fumble around for the outlet to plug it in. 0:24:52 James: To me, that would be the best way to do it. Curling irons, that type of thing. Have a safe shelf or something that they go onto. They shouldn't go onto the toilet lid. They have a tendency to slip off the toilet lid and slip into the toilet bowl. And not good for curling. Not good to go into the toilet bowl for a lot of reasons. I don't think my wife would use hers again if that happened. 0:25:21 Kim: Probably not. What about some of the other rooms in the house. I know we have things like thresholds from room to room or just setting up your rooms in your home. 0:25:34 James: There are little rubber. We've dealt with having wheelchairs in buildings and we add a little rubber bumper. Not a bumper, it's almost like a wedge that will go on so that the threshold isn't as difficult to get over. So if you're in an apartment and the threshold bugs you, there are little things that make it more of a ramp than an actual bump to the toe that you can do with it. Making sure that sometimes doors have like almost an inch lip because of the way the threshold was installed. 0:26:08 James: So there are little things that you can put in a wedge to prevent that from making it a permanent stop to your foot, which I do not like bumping my toes. Yeah, they don't do well. They cry. They're one of my favorite friends because they get me around everywhere, so I make sure that they're well protected. So going into a bedroom, it's the same type of thing as a closet door closing automatically. Most bedroom closet doors don't close, don't have an automatic closure. 0:26:45 James: So if you want that to close, then have a closure put on it so you know that it's always closed. Those are, again, a little bar that's added with a driven weight. There's various types that will bring are in the hinge that'll bring that door closed after you've used it. So those are things to look at adding to make it more comfortable in the bedroom. Any type of an extension cord used for lights or charging your phone. 0:27:14 James: They make little strips that have like a little piece of plastic with like a C hook to it. And you can put those on your bureau and the cord goes through it. They use them for computers to get computers off the line, out of the way. But I use one on my nightstand so that my iPhone charger at night, I don't have to search around for it. It doesn't fall off the little nightstand. It's always there. It's a little tape and velcro piece, and I know where to find it every time. 0:27:44 James: So those are little things to think of that make your life a little simpler and you're not reaching for the cords. Bedrooms, any type of laundry basket that it has the same spot again, going back to roommate, it's really about a team effort of this is what's going to trip me up, this is what's going to bother me. Can you make sure that this is taken care of? Rugs in the hallway the same thing as rugs in the bathroom. They are rubber mats. 0:28:13 James: They're like a rubber cloth you can put underneath a rug. And there's even tape if the edge starts to pop up that you can bring down. I have a 90 year old mother, and we've made the house safer for her to work around. She's using a cane now. More and so we've gone around the house and things that you and I might take for granted that can make at 90, you break a hip. That's not fun. We've done a lot of that stuff where the phone is reachable. 0:28:44 James: The alarm clock has got a velcro holder to it so it doesn't fall off the nightstand when she goes to hit it. There's so many little products that are available that can make your ace Hardware is a perfect place. You go in there and say, I have this issue and I want this fixed. They've got gadgets for everything. It's just wonderful that way. 0:29:08 Kim: Do you have any suggestions, like for furniture placement? I know just safety wise, and if folks are starting to lose their vision, we want to be sure they're avoiding falls, which you've kind of talked about with rugs and things, but sharp corners, too, that you don't have things positioned so you might hit a sharp corner. 0:29:34 James: We had a beautiful glass coffee table before kids, pre kids, and when kids came, my wife really still wanted that beautiful glass coffee table with these sharp metal rod iron holders to it. They were like a lion's claw that held the glass. Well, I went around with pool noodles, and there are some funny commercials about it now, but I went around with pool noodles and taped them onto the unit. Now they make corner covers now for bureaus and all those things. This was turn of the century for me, but they make all that stuff now. So if you have a bureau that's got a hard corner to it, but you're like the bureau, you can get these rubber bumpers. 0:30:22 James: It's kind of the same thing they use on docks for boats to prevent the boat from getting beat up. Why not use it for ourselves so that we can get our bodies beat up? If you find yourself hitting something on a regular basis, that small little $4 piece of rubber can save you from getting a bruise or a cut from it. So to me again, I go back to Ace Hardware because they're more open, they're more helpful than a Home Depot is when you go into it. 0:30:53 James: The smaller mom and pop shops, so to speak, they'll have that type of stuff. They'll have velcro to hold something down. They'll have hooks so that you can put on the door that are these three M shields that you can take off easily, but they'll hold your bathrobe or your sweatshirt and things like that. And you find spots where you want to put them so you know that it's always there. So to me, covering up the corners of sharp nightstands bookshelves, your desk, things like that, that just prevent you from bumping it to it. It's okay to bump when you're not getting hurt. 0:31:33 James: So, yeah, I would use those guys as a. Big resource for all the little things that we see sold, like on Shark Tank, that help us from constantly banging our shins on the bottom of the piece. 0:31:49 James: And I think some of those, now that they are making them for that purpose, are more appealing. Appealing than perhaps the pool noodles. 0:32:03 James: You're implying that my wife didn't like the rubber pool noodles on the corner? 0:32:09 Kim: The kids probably liked them. They would have been colorful. 0:32:12 James: They were colorful. The kids didn't mind them at all. But yes, all that stuff is so much more appealing. And we all are doing that now. We're all using there's a lovely company called Container Store. They sell so many different types of sort of tupware products that you can put batteries in so they're not loosely in a drawer. How many of us at home have a drawer? We open up and it's full of scissors and tape and needle, whatever, and sewing kit, whatever, that you eyeglass cleaners. 0:32:46 James: You can now put those all into little containers. And if you're using Braille, you can mark it. So that says these are extra batteries, these are this, these are that, depending on how you describe things in your house. 0:33:00 Kim: Right, well, and I have seen some news stories where the nine volt batteries, when you're storing them, you need to be sure that those ends are covered up, because if there's friction and they're stored loose in a drawer, that it can cause a fire. 0:33:16 James: Yes, there's a couple of things that happen. Flashlights, if you leave them too long, those batteries you put in a drawer, if they're just even regular batteries, if they're in loosely, they'll arc and then they start to break down the battery and they make quite a mess. The battery acid is not a comfortable thing. I like to put electrical tape if I have a spare nine volt battery, I like to put electrical tape over it, but I find I have less 9 volts in the house now than ever before after switching all of my smoke alarms to the ten year smoke alarm. 0:33:49 Kim: Oh, right, you mentioned that last week. 0:33:52 James: Yeah, I'm a real big fan of that stuff now, because I can guarantee you that if you have the yearly change up batteries, one, you're going to need to have batteries in your house, two, they can go bad, and three, I can guarantee it'll happen at three in the morning, it won't happen midday when you're watching TV, sitting, whatever. No, that's not when it's going to happen. So those are a big thing to change out, even if you're renting the apartment, because you can always save the old one, take the battery out of it and switch it back when you leave if you wanted to. But yeah, there's a lot of little things like that that you can correct. 0:34:33 James: Cushions, things on the door, changing door handles. My mother, we change all the door handles to be the sort of a flat bar versus the round handle because she had trouble grabbing the round handle, the bar she could just push down on. So that's another thing to take a look at. Is it easier for you if you're walking with a cane and you have stuff in your hands to use? A round knob versus the other one? I think more than likely, the flat bar that comes out like a T or like an L off of the door that's easier to open, depending. 0:35:07 James: So all those little things that, as you know, walk around, if it's an inconvenience, I bet there's something to make it better. 0:35:15 Kim: Well, James. Thank you. There are so many tips and tricks that you've provided to us today so that we can have our humps function a little bit better and keep ourselves safe, which is really important. We all want to be safe and avoid falls and accidents. So I appreciate you sharing all of your tips and tricks you've learned over the years. 0:35:39 James: Thank you for inviting me on. It's a pleasure. My kids call me the Safety Guy because we have a first aid kit in every car. We have a first aid kit in every backpack for going hiking. It's just something that my father drilled into me, and I think that I have passed it on to them because I actually needed a Band Aid at my daughter's house and she actually had a first aid kit. I was really surprised. 0:36:01 Kim: Oh, wow. 0:36:02 James: Because kids don't think of that. They buy the wine opener and everything else when they get their first apartment. But she actually bought a first aid kit. So maybe some of these things I've been saying over the years sunk in. And thank you again. 0:36:15 James: She did actually listen. Yeah. Thank you so much. 0:36:18 Kim: You're welcome, James. 0:36:19 Kim: If folks have any questions for you, may they contact you? 0:36:24 James: They can find me through lovelandhandiguy.com. 0:36:29 Kim: Okay, well, thanks again. I hope all of you listening found this very helpful. I know I've noted a couple of things myself that I think I will take home and make some alterations in my own home. Thank you for listening. I always want to remind you of our other podcasts that we offer aftersight Blind Sight and now Blind Level Tech for all things assistive Technology. We do also have a program at AIC. 0:37:03 Kim: It's called the White King Project. If you're in need of a white keen, you can fill out an application on our website to apply to get one for free. And then we also have information where you can get training on how to use that cane. That's at our website aincolorato.org whitecaneproject. And then on May 4, we are having our fundraiser Concert in the Dark, which is going to be a fun experience, really focusing on the audio of the music rather than a visual performance. 0:37:44 Kim: We have Grammy Award winning jazz artist Diane Shore coming, and she will be performing, as will local artists, heart and soul. We have some visually impaired artists, a photographer and a sculptor who will be displaying their artwork as well. Prior to the concert and during intermission, it will be at Rocky Mountain PBS's, Buell Media Center, downtown Arapaho and 24th street. So we're very excited to showcase the talents of these visually impaired artists and invite you to come. 0:38:25 Kim: You can purchase tickets on our website@aincolorato.org concertinark, so we hope to see you there and we hope that you'll tune in again for next month topic. So thanks for listening.