Long Island

I went to Long Island to work 12-hour shifts in a hospital. Needless to say i didn’t see much except the hospital and my hotel room.

Three years after learning I was going blind, I discovered the guide dog school in Smithtown, New York. It is on Long Island and called The Guide Dog Foundation. Prior to attending the guide dog school in 1998, I was using a cane. After attending the April/May class, I came home to North Carolina with a new guide dog and a renewed sense of independence I thought was lost forever.

My first guide dog, Dori, is currently retired and living the high life in the country but my current guide dog is still working away in this small rural town my guide dog friends refer to as Mayberry Incarnate, North Carolina.

The photograph was taken in the dorms of The Guide Dog Foundation. It is a picture of my retired guide dog and me while we were working toward becoming a guide dog team. I had 6+ years of independence with this wonderful addition to my family.

i lived on long island since I was born. I grew up in Lake Ronkonkoma and I liked it.Yea, the lake was crappy sometimes..but my highschool was right down the road and that was nice. Now I live in Florida (bah), I miss living so close to the city. You don’t know what you have until it’s gone!haha.

I was an over-the-road trucker, and I got a load bound for Hicksville, NY. I at first wondered where the f* that was, then I looked it up on the map and saw that it was on Long Island. I thought that would be ok, because I get an extra $50 to go to Long Island.

I found out pretty quickly that Long Island is not a very truck-friendly place. As soon as I got off the L.I.E., I got lost, then I found my way back to where I started and promptly got lost again. Eventually, I got to the consignee, and a guy who sounded exactly like Robert DeNiro unloaded my trailer.

My next load was set to pick up in Wyandanch, so I got back on the expressway, and went over there, then I got lost again. It was around this time that I discovered that the authorities in New York don’t know how to measure the heights of bridges. My truck was 13’ 6” high, and I’m going all over the island, trying to find this place, and somehow I end up on highway 25A, and here’s a bridge with a sign on it that says CLEARANCE 12’ 8”.

I stopped and sat a while in the no stopping zone, wondering what to do, because I couldn’t turn left or right, and I couldn’t turn around, so I went very slowly under the bridge to see what would happen. Of course, nothing happened, because the actual clearance on the bridge was 13’ 8”.

So, my initial experience on Long Island kinda sucked, but I think it would be a nice place to drive around in a car.

everything here is better, you cant win against long isle