My Other Car is a Guide Dog
July 27, 2009 10:49 AM Subscribe
We're familiar with blindsight, and seen a blind man navigate a cluttered hallway (wmv file). A blind man with a loaded rifle seems slightly scarier. But if you see the blind guy driving a 2010 Ford Mustang, it's probably best to yield.
It's been a while since I watched a Youtube of people genuinely enjoying themselves without being dicks about it.
The second video in particular had me smiling before I noticed I was - it must have been a pretty neat experience.
posted by Fraxas at 11:24 AM on July 27, 2009 [1 favorite]
The second video in particular had me smiling before I noticed I was - it must have been a pretty neat experience.
posted by Fraxas at 11:24 AM on July 27, 2009 [1 favorite]
Ayuh.. some use clicks of the tongue and echo location to navigate.. and one time tuning up the car a little late and ran out of light; figured rigging up a light would take too much time and kept working; I finished gapping the valve clearances and went on to do the points (youngsters won't even know what those are... haaa..), all in near total darkness. So these stories are interesting but not surprising...
posted by vvurdsmyth at 11:28 AM on July 27, 2009
posted by vvurdsmyth at 11:28 AM on July 27, 2009
mustangs don't get me very excited given what else is out there but whoever had the idea of doing this for a blind man has my respect. just look at his face.
posted by krautland at 11:33 AM on July 27, 2009
posted by krautland at 11:33 AM on July 27, 2009
In the thumbnails before reading/watching I saw that yellow lab on the ground by a car and thought, "Oh God, he killed his poor dog." But when I enlarged the picture I was glad to see the dog was just getting petted.
posted by Kimothy at 12:56 PM on July 27, 2009
posted by Kimothy at 12:56 PM on July 27, 2009
vvurdsmyth: "Ayuh.. some use clicks of the tongue and echo location to navigate.. and one time tuning up the car a little late and ran out of light; figured rigging up a light would take too much time and kept working; I finished gapping the valve clearances and went on to do the points (youngsters won't even know what those are... haaa..), all in near total darkness. So these stories are interesting but not surprising..."
As it turns out, "TWANG...tic tic tic tic tic tic" is the sound of a pushrod bending from running the rockers down too tight. I found this out one night after installing a new camshaft in my '70 Impala Luckily, I had a few spares, so I changed the pushrod out...in East St. Louis. The particular block's lights were shot out, too. The cop who pulled up thought I was nuts. Pretty sure he was right.
posted by notsnot at 1:09 PM on July 27, 2009
As it turns out, "TWANG...tic tic tic tic tic tic" is the sound of a pushrod bending from running the rockers down too tight. I found this out one night after installing a new camshaft in my '70 Impala Luckily, I had a few spares, so I changed the pushrod out...in East St. Louis. The particular block's lights were shot out, too. The cop who pulled up thought I was nuts. Pretty sure he was right.
posted by notsnot at 1:09 PM on July 27, 2009
"Blind guy?" Is this really OK, to refer to someone visually impaired as "blind guy?" The preferred term is "Invisible American," not "blind guy."
posted by Mister_A at 1:23 PM on July 27, 2009
posted by Mister_A at 1:23 PM on July 27, 2009
True story: Every fall, my dad and all his friends would "go hunting". The quotes are because they told the wives they were going hunting, they never brought back anything except an out of season duck, and as the girl who cleaned the guns, most years the guns were never fired. It was pretty much an excuse for them to go out to the cabin, drink a lot of beer and go do whatever it is that men do when they escape.
Amongst the guys that went was my dad's friend Mike; who had been blind since birth. One year, when I was a teenager, I got a call from my dad. He wanted my boyfriend and I to grab the big tow truck and head out into the woods...only they wanted us to be discrete and not tell anyone else that's where we were going.
A 3 hour trip later up the highway, and about an hour of searching around in the woods, we finally found all 6 of them...with the hunting jeep having climbed up and parked itself atop a rather impressive tree/shrubbery. They were all drunk as lords, and apparently had decided that since Mike was sober, Mike should drive.
We couldn't get the truck back to the jeep, but after some sober reflection, my engineer boyfriend was able to figure out a way to get the jeep down, after which we took them all back to the cabin, and left them to their own devices.
It turns out that we probably should have taken the guns, as their next drunk trick involved letting Mike hunt. Only, he pointed the gun straight up, and defying the laws of probability, he shot a duck. In deer season. Near a game warden. The warden was less than amused, but he let Mike keep the duck, which was stuffed and put in his house, and thereafter referred to as the $500 duck, which was the total of all the fines involved in letting blind men shoot animals out of season.
Mike passed away last year, but I know for a fact that he would have loved a chance to drive the new mustang. Although, it might have been a pretty tame experience given his 40 year history of "goin' huntin'".
posted by dejah420 at 2:16 PM on July 27, 2009 [16 favorites]
Amongst the guys that went was my dad's friend Mike; who had been blind since birth. One year, when I was a teenager, I got a call from my dad. He wanted my boyfriend and I to grab the big tow truck and head out into the woods...only they wanted us to be discrete and not tell anyone else that's where we were going.
A 3 hour trip later up the highway, and about an hour of searching around in the woods, we finally found all 6 of them...with the hunting jeep having climbed up and parked itself atop a rather impressive tree/shrubbery. They were all drunk as lords, and apparently had decided that since Mike was sober, Mike should drive.
We couldn't get the truck back to the jeep, but after some sober reflection, my engineer boyfriend was able to figure out a way to get the jeep down, after which we took them all back to the cabin, and left them to their own devices.
It turns out that we probably should have taken the guns, as their next drunk trick involved letting Mike hunt. Only, he pointed the gun straight up, and defying the laws of probability, he shot a duck. In deer season. Near a game warden. The warden was less than amused, but he let Mike keep the duck, which was stuffed and put in his house, and thereafter referred to as the $500 duck, which was the total of all the fines involved in letting blind men shoot animals out of season.
Mike passed away last year, but I know for a fact that he would have loved a chance to drive the new mustang. Although, it might have been a pretty tame experience given his 40 year history of "goin' huntin'".
posted by dejah420 at 2:16 PM on July 27, 2009 [16 favorites]
This thread reminds me of one of my favorite album cover photos.
My friend T is legally blind (he can still sense movment and distinguish bright and dark, but that's about it). You wouldn't believe the shit he gets away with at strip clubs. "Really, honey, it's like Braille..."
I highly recommend that everyone go out and make friends with a blind person. Then you can park ANYWHERE.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:42 PM on July 27, 2009
My friend T is legally blind (he can still sense movment and distinguish bright and dark, but that's about it). You wouldn't believe the shit he gets away with at strip clubs. "Really, honey, it's like Braille..."
I highly recommend that everyone go out and make friends with a blind person. Then you can park ANYWHERE.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:42 PM on July 27, 2009
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posted by Mental Wimp at 11:14 AM on July 27, 2009