Monday, April 02, 2012

Our Household: Part 3

Before I start today's post, I had an interesting question from the last one. It was  asked if it was true that Sugar Gliders hate dogs.
In our household, our Sugar Gliders do not hate dogs. In fact, when Fiona, Yoda and Plato are out and about, they often jump on to Glacier and Roscoe and scurry around on the boys. Both boys are incredibly patient and just ignore the Sugies. Hermione has only been introduced to them through the cage so far, but eventually, we hope to teach her that Sugar Gliders are friends, not food.
I thought today we could be introduced to one of the two humans in our household. We are definitely outnumbered by animals here, but I don't think we'd have it any other way.
Introducing Mr. K.
Mr. K was born and raised in Michigan, but moved around a bit in his early adult years. He attended college to become a minister, but realised that that sort of work just wasn't for him. He started working for Best Buy and quickly climbed the managerial ladder. He worked in both Michigan and Florida and was very successful. At age 25, just six months after he had bought a brand new car, he lost his sight to a neurological condition. Apparently it had been going on for a while, but there was nothing gradual about the onset. At one point, he was totally blind, but after under going some heavy steroid treatments, he regained some of his light perception, which he still has today. This means, he can see bright lights on TV screens or even outside, as long as there is enough contrast.
After this very obvious life altering experience, he attended the Commission for the Blind in Michigan, which is a facility designed to assist totally blind and visually impaired people learn important life skills, such as reading braille and Orientation and Mobility. (Orientation and Mobility is what we are taught to allow us to be independent travelers). After four months at the Commission, Mr. K attended Leader Dogs for the Blind and was matched with Roscoe. This is where we met as well.
Our"courting" story is kind of funny, but quite lengthy. So, perhaps I'll leave that for another day.
Mr. K decided to go back to school and in October of 2009, he entered Liberty University for Psychology. He is currently a "Senior" and will probably graduate in the fall of 2013; unless he decides to do a double major in Psychology and Criminal Justice. His future plans include attending the University of Edinburgh for his Master's in some kind of Neuro Psychology program that I can never remember the name of; it's just that impressive.
Mr. K is six foot five and his height is often a conversation starter. We always tease him because Roscoe is shorter than Glacier, but realistically, personality wise, Mr. K and Roscoe were matched perfectly.
Mr. K likes to draw and after not drawing due to his sight loss, my mom convinced him to try again with some very impressive success.  He also started painting when we moved with even more success. One of our friends has commissioned him to paint him a series of paintings, with the Yorkshire rose as the focus. Everyone who sees the paintings are floored at how good they are. Mr. K, of course, does not think they are brilliant, but many people would beg to differ. He also comes from a musical background in that he played the guitar in a metal band in high school and continued playing music, just with different instruments. When we lived in SC, he picked up the banjo and thoroughly enjoyed it and now he is taking online lessons for the mandalen. He is actually talented and I am impressed at how quickly he has learned to play each new instrument.
Mr. K is also the biggest nerd around, but I love him for it. It's funny because if you were to see him, you may not believe me. He has several tattoos and his hair used to be shaved into a mohawk, but underneath all of that, Mr. K loves electronics and videogames. Cameras, computers, new cellphones, anything that may be related to technology and he's going to be excited. His favourite are speakers though. When we lived in SC, he had a crazy sound system and whenever someone gets a new one, he is always over hooking it up properly.
Mr. K wasn't really an animal person until he met me and was matched with Roscoe. Actually, I think the various dogs we've had in our considerably short relationship have all brought him closer to being a dog person. He has completely fallen in love with Hermione and as I mentioned before, the Sugar Gliders have attached themselves to him.
As for me and Mr. K: we are best friends. Sure, we have little spats as any friends or married people do, but at the end of the day, we like doing things with each other and love being around one another. We definitely complement one another  well and I think that is what makes our relationship work. I think sometimes it is easy to forget, in the craziness of the day to day, how important someone can be to you. Sometimes I forget to tell him how proud of him I am and how lucky I am to have him in my life. I mean, really, who else would put up with my crazy dog antics?

7 comments:

pattib said...

Aw, thanks for sharing your special Mr K with us! He sounds like a wonderful guy, and a good match for you. :) (Now I must go tell my husband, Andy, how proud I am of him, too. Thanks for that reminder!)

Becky Andrews said...

How fun to read more about you guys! And, of course I love the last sweet paragraph :)!

The Websters said...

Wow. Mr K. Is VERY talented.

xoxo,

Nora

Nicky said...

Aw, that is a lovely post. As a person who has always been blind I can't imagine it was easy for MR. K at first but sounds like everything is good now. You also sound very happy together and he is even taller than me. :) I won't ever try and mess with that guy haha.

K9 Katastrophie said...

Great post! I would love to hear about your courtship with Mr.K sometime! That is incredible how he is so talented at so many things!

Jen said...

He sounds like a very interesting person!

The World According to Garth Riley said...

We have been curious about Mr. K so we enjoyed learning about him. We can't wait to hear your courting story!