Love is More Blind than Ever

Jennie Bovard:
Hello and welcome. It's Low Vision Moments, the podcast all about those sometimes frustrating, potentially embarrassing, but often pretty comical things that happen when you are just going about your day with a visual impairment, blindness, or albinism. I'm your host. My name is Jennie. And I am super excited to this time be introducing to you a guest who has been on this podcast, this will be their third time appearing on the podcast and no other guest has done that, so they must be pretty special. This person is special. They know me and how I see better than anybody in the world. They understand me and get me and support me and they are an incredible human being. They were on episode nine called Love Is Legally Blind. They were on episode number 21 called Love Is Still Legally Blind. They are... He is the one and only husband of mine, Yves.

Yves Wermeling:
Howdy. How's it going up there?

Jennie Bovard:
It's going well up here. How's it going down there in the basement?

Yves Wermeling:
It's nice. It's cool.

Jennie Bovard:
You dressed it up real well. You're looking good. Yeah, you and the background looking fantastic.

Yves Wermeling:
Nice. Thanks. Thank you. I combed my hair.

Jennie Bovard:
You did. And that's not a daily thing for you. People should know that's a special thing. What else do you want the folks to know about you that maybe they don't know?

Yves Wermeling:
Well, we've been married for a nice long time and I like it.

Jennie Bovard:
Here's a good skill-testing question that will give people a glimpse of the type of relationship that we have. Now, no cheating, okay? And I won't cheat either. How long have we been married? Should we take a guess?

Yves Wermeling:
I think it's been seven or eight years.

Jennie Bovard:
Okay. What's your guess? What's your final answer? Lock it in.

Yves Wermeling:
Seven.

Jennie Bovard:
Seven? That's my guess, too. Not because it's not because it's my lucky number. Okay, let's look it up real quick. So we got married in what year? Do you know?

Yves Wermeling:
No, I can't remember the name of that year.

Jennie Bovard:
Yeah, it was 2016. Right, so that's seven years. Go us. Hey, we both guessed right. That's fantastic.

Yves Wermeling:
Yay.

Jennie Bovard:
We've had a pretty interesting couple of days. It's been a busy weekend, a busy day.

Yves Wermeling:
I find the past few months have been busy months altogether. But yeah, we've gotten a lot done already today.

Jennie Bovard:
And we'll get into all that. We'll talk about what we've been up to together since the last time you were on, but why don't you fill us in on the best parts of this weekend?

Yves Wermeling:
Geez, I mowed the lawn this morning, so that's pretty cool. Front lawn looking great. Our wheat field was pretty good.

Jennie Bovard:
After No-Mow May, it looks like a different... The wheat field, it looks like a different house.

Yves Wermeling:
The bees better have freaking enjoyed it. Were you talking about the Wildfire Relief Benefit concert that we went to on Friday night maybe?

Jennie Bovard:
Yeah. Yeah, a couple nights ago. Wasn't that awesome?

Yves Wermeling:
That was a really good time.

Jennie Bovard:
Such a good show. And they put that together so quickly and it was so touching. That place was packed. The whole Scotiabank Centre or as OGs call it...

Yves Wermeling:
The Metro Centre, Jen, it's the Metro Centre.

Jennie Bovard:
Classified called the Metro Centre. But yeah, there was a huge lineup. We had Joel Plaskett, Classified, Adam-

Yves Wermeling:
Matt Mays?

Jennie Bovard:
Adam Baldwin, Matt Mays, Neon Dreams was pretty cool.

Yves Wermeling:
Adam Baldwin.

Jennie Bovard:
Yeah, it was-

Yves Wermeling:
Neon Dreams was awesome.

Jennie Bovard:
And they raised over $300,000 that night alone.

Yves Wermeling:
And with corporate sponsorship and whatnot, earned one point something million, I think it was, altogether. That's a great-

Jennie Bovard:
It was over a million.

Yves Wermeling:
It was a good concert and good cause, as well.

Jennie Bovard:
We all have different capacities in which we can help when things like wildfires happen or these devastating things happen in our neighbourhood, in our region. And this was a nice way to know that you can contribute and participate if there wasn't another way that you could do that, which is how I felt. So that was a great night. But that was also the second time ever, in my 30-plus years of being on Earth, that I used a mobility cane, a white cane as they call it. The second time ever. And what's funny is the first time ever I used one of these long mobility canes, mine's got a pink handle by the way, was just a week ago while the wildfires were actually going on. We snuck out, went to a comedy show also at the Scotiabank Centre at the Metro Centre. That was a lot of fun.

Yves Wermeling:
Metro Centre, Jen.

Jennie Bovard:
It was so good to just sneak out and have a laugh because it was, it's really scary. And I should say before we move on that anyone who's affected by the wildfires in Nova Scotia, all the first responders et cetera, and across Canada, a lot of people are being affected by the wildfires. Our hearts are with you and in Nova Scotia, all of the province's hearts are with those affected, I'm sure. And it really shows in the ways that people are giving back. But I digress. We went out and we had a whole new experience together because I was using a cane and I had this discussion with someone recently that no one had ever really suggested that a mobility cane would be a good option for us because this other person I was speaking with, we tend to function really well using other techniques and getting around.
But there are certain environments in a big stadium when it's dark and where there are weird oddly positioned steps and things like that where it really comes in handy. It was a game-changer for me. Don't think I'll ever go to that kind of venue. And probably a lot of other environments now where I'll have it with me, but enough about my experience. I would normally, Yves, rely on you a lot in those kinds of situations to help guide and give information so I can get around without falling on my face. What was it like for you, not having that much responsibility?

Yves Wermeling:
It was different actually because typically, yeah, like you're saying, a lot of the time when we go out to a big event or a big function like that, you might have your ID cane or something like that, but I'm still going to be helping lead you one place or another. Or at least just help guide where the steps are or I might be calling out where there's a drop or a dip or something in the ground. So I feel like that did allow me to move a little bit free more freely, but at the same time I was very much like, I'm used to you being right behind me so much closer.
It was different having you a few steps farther away from me than normal because I am used to having you super close or touching my elbow or something like that. So I'm thinking, "If I'm going to squeeze through some people, I need to really make sure that there's room for two." Whereas this time it was like you were a little bit more obvious and whatnot, but I find that you were able to navigate a lot easier without me calling out, "The steps are starting here and they're also, every second step is diagonal shaped."

Jennie Bovard:
It was like I had freaking peripheral vision and it was liberating. I know how cliche that's going to sound, but it was like, holy shit, it's like I have peripheral vision. I'm getting so much more information and I think I'm still really figuring out the balance between following you and using the cane for information because I'd like to walk just next to you. But in the super crowded environment, it felt more efficient to just follow you. And with the cane in front of me, you're right, that puts a little bit more space in between us. But it was a really awesome experience to finally do that.
I think the lesson here is that even if you've not been recommended a mobility cane, maybe give her a try, especially if you're someone without peripheral vision, especially in certain environments. And I know my vision well enough to know that if it's going to be dark and there are stairs or if there are stairs period and maybe it's sunny, whatever, any number of factors, I'm going to be taking that thing a lot more places. I'm very grateful that I did that. And-

Yves Wermeling:
I even feel that people around us were giving you a little bit more space. I know that the ID cane should be enough for people to be like, "Oh." But I noticed that even just the people passing by were... They noticed that a little bit more and were giving you a little bit more space, especially in front of you and whatnot. It just seemed like there was a bit of a different atmosphere and it was nice to see that it was working out. It was working.

Jennie Bovard:
Yeah, and that's so true. I did notice that, too. I think the ID cane can be a good option for some people. For those who might not know, an ID cane, identification cane, is just that. It's just something that you hold, it's like a mini cane to let people know that you're blind or visually impaired. I have not found it to be very effective because it's so small, especially in those really crowded situations, people don't see it until they're like right in front of you. But it's funny you mentioned that people were giving more me more space. There are pros and cons with anything. And I don't know if I told you about this, but when I went to the washroom, I think someone assumed that I couldn't see them and they straight up cut in front of me for the paper towel.

Yves Wermeling:
No, no, you didn't tell me that at all. You told me somebody cut you off. You didn't mention that they thought that you couldn't see.

Jennie Bovard:
Blatantly looked at the cane, looked at me, stepped directly in front of me, cut in front of me. They thought they were being fucking sneaky. I don't know. I may or may not have whacked their foot a little bit with the cane, by accident.

Yves Wermeling:
I think that's reasonable.

Jennie Bovard:
Quote accident. Anyways. But it just goes to show pros and cons with anything. And people are mostly good. People are mostly good. We're here to recap what we've done since you were on about a year ago. Let's turn this thing around, pull some Tarantino and go back in time and bring us back to present day. One of the highlights for me, and I think probably for you too, I think that I have more of the travel bug than you do, but last August, we left the Maritimes for the first time in, what was it, two and a half years?

Yves Wermeling:
Yeah, yeah.

Jennie Bovard:
It was two and a half years. Because at the beginning of Covid... Well, before Covid hit, we were planning a trip to Europe. So last August, do you want to tell the people about where we went?

Yves Wermeling:
We went to Montreal.

Jennie Bovard:
Yes, we did.

Yves Wermeling:
We got to see Bill Burr.

Jennie Bovard:
That was a really good trip. Holy crap, it felt good to get out. The highlight of the trip was obviously the comedy show. Do you remember something that you did for me that was super kind, at the comedy show?

Yves Wermeling:
I made sure that you were able to get your phone in.

Jennie Bovard:
Why would I want to bring my phone in?

Yves Wermeling:
So that you could see billboards and menus over concession stands and stuff?

Jennie Bovard:
You mean the beer menu.

Yves Wermeling:
Yeah, because it's one of those... I don't know if people that are listening and watching have gone to any very many big shows recently, but a lot of times they make you essentially package up your phone so that you can't record things or ruin the show for other people and whatnot. They're about to package up your phone and I said, "Hey, I don't think you should package her phone up, because she uses that as an aid for vision." And I think kudos to the people at the Bell Centre in Montreal. They figured it out right away. A lot of places you'd be like, "No, she needs that to see." And I'm sure at a lot of smaller places have been like, "Well, what do you mean she needs that to see?" But I thought that it was really cool that they were just like, "Oh, oh yeah, no problem. Just make sure you don't record the show or anything." And they'd just let you go through. So that was really cool of that, I thought.

Jennie Bovard:
Yeah, no long explanations required. And I think the coolest thing was that I didn't think of that. You thought of that for me. Again, that just comes back to you get it sometimes even more so than I do, which blows my mind sometimes. What else did we do? We...

Yves Wermeling:
Art museum. The hardest art museum in the world to find.

Jennie Bovard:
I have excellent navigation skills. Excellent. And between you and I, you've got eyes, I've got lots of orientation and mobility skills using maps and GPS and asking for directions. We did all the things. We almost gave up and we'd almost didn't find this place, but we did. And that was-

Yves Wermeling:
It was getting bleak.

Jennie Bovard:
It was, yeah. But we didn't give up and we found it. And I think it was worth it. That was a lot of fun.

Yves Wermeling:
Totally worth it.

Jennie Bovard:
I'm not going to go ahead and call it accessible in a visual sense. You did have to fill in a lot of blanks for me. I did ask a lot of questions, but-

Yves Wermeling:
There was a lot going on in some of the stuff. Some things were very small, a lot of detail-oriented items.

Jennie Bovard:
But with any art show, it was a little weird at times. And-

Yves Wermeling:
Any good art show.

Jennie Bovard:
Exactly. Any good art show. It was a little exhibit. It was a little weird at times. But do you remember the one thing that you pointed out to me? I never would've even known about this part of the exhibit.

Yves Wermeling:
There was a room and it was all just white and there was one doorway was full of garland, I believe. And it was a foot's worth of depth of garland that you walked through to get into the room. And then you get into this room and it's just all white. And then there's a tunnel, like some kind of masonry-looking tunnel at the end of the room. And you think, oh, I just go through this room. And on the left wall there's a set of lips, the size of human lips, so quite small, and it looks like they're in a whistling kind of posture. And I walked by them and I could see there was light coming from the hole in the lips. And you get right up, up close, and then you realize there's a whole video. There's a whole screened world inside of the lips with a kaleidoscope kind of... It was a lot of weirdness.

Jennie Bovard:
It was pretty tripped out, psychedelic kind of thing, right?

Yves Wermeling:
Yeah. There was broken glass in a kaleidoscope in a fish tank. I don't know. There was a lot going on. It was awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I know that we would... Most people, I'm sure, would've just walked by that set of lips. There was nothing in that room to make you think you should stop.

Jennie Bovard:
How did you spot them? Were you just scanning the room?

Yves Wermeling:
I just noticed there was something on the wall. There should be something in this room.

Jennie Bovard:
I have to thank you again for pointing that out and enhancing the experience for me. Something I otherwise might have missed. I think it was the following day, we went out to the market, what was it? Jean Talon, I think it's called?

Yves Wermeling:
Yeah, I believe that was the name of the market.

Jennie Bovard:
Yeah, I think that's what it's called. And I just wanted to ogle produce and get some fancy coffee and stuff. And we did that.

Yves Wermeling:
So much nice food in that place. Oh my God. And the abundance of single items, how there's a row of different places that are just selling garlic.

Jennie Bovard:
We went through there, had a coffee, I think we had a little croissant or something. And just outside, there's a whole side street just full of what I would call standard cafes. They have their little outdoor seating and it's August, so it's nice. And they have got their outdoor seating, but they all look the same, kind of generic to me. And so as we're walking, we need to have some brunch, we need to have a big breakfast here to fuel our day. And this was before we went to hunt for the art gallery, so we really needed it. We didn't even know how much we needed it.
But off in the distance beyond these standard-looking cafes, I spotted this bright yellow and blue building and I was like, "Ooh, I wonder what that place is." And then as we approached it was like, "Ooh, it's a greasy spoon kind of diner place." And they have big breakfasts and it was just perfect. So it was like this beacon of bright colours. So business owners, if you want people to notice your business, big, big, bright colours. Those of us who are visually impaired and appreciate colour, we come to them from a distance. So I found that, but you had these giant blueberries and I was like, "Yo, I don't know about those blueberries. Those don't look natural."

Yves Wermeling:
No, they aren't.

Jennie Bovard:
Do you remember that?

Yves Wermeling:
They aren't natural blueberries. They're grapes. And they were so big, they were the kind that even had the seeds in them.

Jennie Bovard:
So before we move on from Montreal, we had such a great time. We ate and had some fancy drinks and you had a smoked meat sandwich, of course.

Yves Wermeling:
If you ever go to Montreal, you definitely have to have a large smoked meat Ruben-style sandwich. I believe the place was called Ruben's in Montreal. Wow.

Jennie Bovard:
It was called Ruben's. Absolutely. And they have really nice cocktails there, as well. I had one with jalapenos in it, but I can't remember what it was called. It was really good. Remember when we went to Cape Breton for... That was a big bad celebration. It was a birthday celebration for... I guess she's family. And we brought a whole crew, even our little niece. That was a fun, fun trip. I didn't really have any incidents or real moments with my vision. And at the end of that trip, I questioned your vision and I don't think you're ever going to live this one down.
Now, when we stayed an Airbnb, I brought my own pillow. I've got neck stuff, so if I can bring my own pillow, I'm going to bring it. We had to drive, I brought my own pillow, and as I was packing up at the end of the weekend, I put my pillow in a plastic bag, a clear plastic bag, and I put it at the front of the pile of pillows on the Airbnb bed. We're packing up the car, I'm outside, and I ask Yves, "Hey, would you mind going in and grabbing my pillow for me?" And this pillow of mine had a lovely, I don't think it was silk. I can't afford silk. Pretty sure satin is what I'm...

Yves Wermeling:
Satiny. Satin of some sort.

Jennie Bovard:
Satinish? Satin...

Yves Wermeling:
Satinish.

Jennie Bovard:
Satin-esque-

Yves Wermeling:
Satin-esque?

Jennie Bovard:
Material, supposed to be good for your hair and skin and whatnot. I even had a special pillowcase on this pillow. Yves, do you want to tell the people what you did?

Yves Wermeling:
Grabbed the wrong pillow.

Jennie Bovard:
How did you grab the wrong pillow?

Yves Wermeling:
Just the one that looked like your pillow.

Jennie Bovard:
I don't even understand. I don't even understand. And it was in the front.

Yves Wermeling:
I'm pretty sure I grabbed whatever pillow was in the bag, though, didn't I?

Jennie Bovard:
No.

Yves Wermeling:
I claim the fifth, as of this moment.

Jennie Bovard:
I didn't realize it wasn't my pillow until I was going to bed that night. And I was like, "This is the fucking Airbnb pillow. This is some stranger's pillow." Now they have my fancy pillow.

Yves Wermeling:
Super nice pillow.

Jennie Bovard:
Fancy pillowcase.

Yves Wermeling:
Nice pillowcase.

Jennie Bovard:
Silver lining here is that I went and did some research and got an even better pillow. So now my pillow is even better. And I have a pretty, purple satin version of the pillowcase now.

Yves Wermeling:
And I got a pretty purple satin pillowcase now too, apparently.

Jennie Bovard:
Yeah, you do. Because they have to match. For a while, I let it slide where our pillowcase on the bed did not match. All is forgiven. That was another fun trip. Change of scenery. And we went to this really cool gorge-type thing. That was really fun.

Yves Wermeling:
Yeah, it was like an old mine or something like that. It was a quartz quarry or... Was it quartz?

Jennie Bovard:
What else did we do last fall?

Yves Wermeling:
We went camping.

Jennie Bovard:
We did go camping last fall. That the dog's first real camping trip, wasn't it?

Yves Wermeling:
Yes.

Jennie Bovard:
Yes, it was. And he did really, really well. He had been in a canoe before, but this past fall we went to... Well, it was like late summer, I think it was still really warm in the fall. And we took Rory, our dog, in the canoe to our usual camping spot. And that worked out really, really well until we got there and realized that we had forgotten the food. A big bag of food, right?

Yves Wermeling:
Well, okay. We didn't realize we forgot the food when we got there. We realized we didn't have the food when we wanted to eat.

Jennie Bovard:
Oh, right. So yeah, we had been there a while before we-

Yves Wermeling:
We'd been there hours.

Jennie Bovard:
It was hours.? Oh, shit.

Yves Wermeling:
Oh, yes. We had everything set up. We were about to start making dinner.

Jennie Bovard:
Oh, okay. And that's why it almost got dark. You and our friend Jeremy went left the campsite, as the sun was setting, to go back to get the food that was left at the shore where we launched off originally, which was like what? It's like a 20-minute paddle or something, right?

Yves Wermeling:
Yeah. 20 minutes, almost half an hour, with a mild amount of portage. But because we were going back empty, we were much faster than we typically would be if we were laden down with the camping gear and stuff. So we were able to make it go quite quickly. But we noticed when the sun was setting and hey, we got back to camp before the sun set.

Jennie Bovard:
You did. But I got to tell-

Yves Wermeling:
As the sun was setting.

Jennie Bovard:
I don't know if I told you, but I was terrified. I was with the dog, alone, in the dark, very, very, very visually impaired. I just was like, "Oh my God, what if the dog wanders off?" We had him on a leash when I had him alone, but anything could happen. And I was just like, "Oh my God." It was almost set by the time you guys got back.

Yves Wermeling:
It was getting dark by the time... I actually got some really nice pictures of the sunset from the canoe while we were out there thinking, "Well, there's very rarely an opportunity to really get these pictures. This is a once-in-a-moment kind of situation." So I did stop paddling for a moment to get some really nice snapshots of the sunset on the water. But we were very close, when we were going to... When we got to the spot where we actually got the boats in the water, where we launched, there were some people that were taking their boat out of the water and we just yelled at them, "Hey, is there a bag there with food in it?" And they're like, "Yep." So we didn't even have to get out of the canoe when we got to where we launched. They just tossed the bag of food towards us, we got it, we just turned around and headed right back, right away. So it could have been worse, it could have been better.

Jennie Bovard:
I'm just lucky that I didn't get stuck there in the dark for very long, so it was good. I almost forgot that camping trip cost me a pair of sandals. Very nice sandals. That was the camping trip. And I just replaced them. I just replaced them. That camping trip... When you were gone, getting the food... I have these covered-toe sandals that you can wear in the water and stuff, and they were all wet. So I thought, let me prop these up next to the fire so they can get dry. And then all of a sudden I'm like, "What is that smell?" And I'm like, "Oh, shit, my sandals are melting." Depth perception fail. I had them way too close to the fire and they were not a little bit melted. They're a lot melted. A lot black, a lot melted. They were not even wearable.

Yves Wermeling:
Bottoms were very charred.

Jennie Bovard:
I think there was a whole burned straight through one of them.

Yves Wermeling:
Yeah, that was tough.

Jennie Bovard:
But until then they held up really well. Those are good sandals. Those KEEN sandals. Yeah, I'm glad I have replaced those. Eventful camping trip for sure. Yeah, that was a good one. A memorable one. We've camped at that place many times, but that was probably one of the most memorable times.

Yves Wermeling:
Yes, that was nice there.

Jennie Bovard:
What else have we been up to? We did the live stream for some of the Nova Scotia Open Goalball Tournament. That was the sixth Nova Scotia Open Goalball Tournament. How do you enjoy doing the live stream with me? Is it painful or is it fun?

Yves Wermeling:
Oh, no, I like it. It's fun.

Jennie Bovard:
I think you're really good at it, too.

Yves Wermeling:
I find that it's the right pace for play-by-play in that fashion because it's just quick enough that stuff's always going on, but it's not so quick that you have to skip plays. I find that it's a really good game to be able to do colour commentary for. It's fun.

Jennie Bovard:
I like to do the majority of the commentary, but sometimes we switch off, I take a break and you do a whole game. You do the commentary and sort of play-by-play for the livestream. But what's really awesome is having you there to fill in things that I might miss. When I do these livestream commentary kind of things, I often have my monocular with me or some kind of distance viewing, like my smartphone. But often, this is one of the few times that I'll use a monocular, which is like a para of binoculars, but single. Mono. Mono. Monocular. But if players switch positions, for example, I might not even notice if a winger moves into the centre or what have you. Or if there's a penalty. Sometimes things happen so quickly that it's so awesome to have you there to fill in those blanks and you're really, really good at that, so thank you.

Yves Wermeling:
I like doing it. I think that it's really fun time and I guess it's something that I'm half-decent at.

Jennie Bovard:
No, you're great at it. Not half-decent. One thing about this past year is... Every year, we learn new things about ourselves. And you helped me realize this past year, just sort of how sick and twisted I am. Do you know what I'm getting at? Do you remember-

Yves Wermeling:
Describing accidents and stuff to you? Or stuff like that? Is that what you want?

Jennie Bovard:
There was one specific moment when I realized it, though.

Yves Wermeling:
There was one, I don't remember what the car... It wasn't actually a very memorable car accident. We were just standing at the intersection and the tow trucks and stuff were there and you're asking, "Oh hey, what's going on?" And I said, "Nothing." The ambulances are already gone. They were putting sand down to sop up the oil.

Jennie Bovard:
They're putting sand down. Something happened. But I think what made me realize how sick and twisted I am is how disappointed I was that there was nothing to describe to me. I was just like, "Damn." But it made me realize something else about... A lot of people I know who are blind. I shouldn't say a lot, but there's a handful of people I know that are blind who are really into NASCAR. And now I understand why. And that's all I'm going to say about that. We don't even need to go into detail. We're just going to leave that right there. We're already talking about stuff that happened after Christmas. Because I have a new job where I get to work in part of the school system. So I had March break off for the first time in countless years and that was really cool. And we had purchased a new bed right around that time. So in my mind I thought naturally, "Oh, we're getting a new bed. Why not just redo the whole frigging room?"

Yves Wermeling:
Might as well, right?

Jennie Bovard:
Might as well. So we got a new bed, we got a new light fixture, put some new stuff up on the walls, nothing major. Oh, but we did do some really lovely custom art. Sun, moon, star paintings above the bed. Very proud of those. But I think I realized something. You helped me realize something else about myself when we were painting the bedroom. And not to throw you under the bus here, babe, but I think I'm a better painter than you are. I can paint cleaner lines than you. And that's really kind of messed up, isn't it?

Yves Wermeling:
Yeah. I suppose it might be considered messed up.

Jennie Bovard:
You can see much more detail and accuracy than I can, when it comes to painting in the lines, on the lines. What's your excuse?

Yves Wermeling:
I might just not notice?

Jennie Bovard:
I remember what you said. Are you hoping I don't remember what you said when I first fucking mentioned it to you? You're so full of shit. You're the worst liar. Oh my god, I love you, but you're the worst liar. Your face is so red right now. You know what he said guys? He said, "I think it's because you care more." So next time, I'm just going to paint it all myself. I'm just going to... Because he doesn't even care. I'm really good at painting. The rolling, doing the edges, that's me. This guy doesn't even care.

Yves Wermeling:
I put paint.

Jennie Bovard:
But thank you for your help. You painted. You know what? Thank you for all the help anyway, even if you don't care.

Yves Wermeling:
I care. It's just, I think you care more.

Jennie Bovard:
It looks good now. Aren't you glad we did it? Doesn't it look fantastic?

Yves Wermeling:
Yeah, it looks super sharp in there.

Jennie Bovard:
We are nearly back to present-day in our Tarantino film. Something that was super embarrassing just recently. Actually, no. First, we need to tell people about your best joke of the year because that comes chronologically before my super embarrassing thing that happened. Early in May, I travelled to Ottawa for Senior Goalball Nationals. I played with the Nova Scotia team. Awesome frigging tournament. We kind of made history. Our Nova Scotia women's team won the first-ever medal at Nationals for the Nova Scotia women's team. Second only to basically Team Canada, who is Team Ontario. We brought home silver.

Yves Wermeling:
Woo.

Jennie Bovard:
But I'm not here to brag. That's not the point of this story. The point is that while I was in Ottawa, we were chatting on the phone. And we were chatting on the phone when I was back in the hotel room and you made the best frigging joke. I swear to God, best joke since you've been on. I told you that we passed this place when we were driving back to the hotel and this place's sign was super huge, super high contrast. And I was like, "Oh wow, I can really see that sign. That sign says Blinds to Go. Okay."

Yves Wermeling:
What is that, some kind of a company that transports people with vision impairments?

Jennie Bovard:
You said something like, "What is that? A car service for blind people?" It's like, "Yes, that's the best business idea ever." It's Blinds to Go. It's exclusively... Okay, but is this a self-driving car thing?

Yves Wermeling:
No, it's probably just an Uber or a bus. It's really just the bus.

Jennie Bovard:
It's just the bus.

Yves Wermeling:
Just the bus.

Jennie Bovard:
It's just the bus. So I heard about this really cool car service in the United States, I believe it's in Texas. And it's this service where it's self-driving cars come... It's like Uber, but it's a self-driving vehicle, and it comes to where you are and the vehicle makes noise, like beeps or something, so that you can locate it, get in, you can sit in the driver's seat if you want, but you don't have to do anything. You sit in the vehicle, it autonomously takes you to your destination. It will wait there for you. And when you come out, it's again in the parking lot or whatever beeping so you can find it. I think that should be called Blinds to Go. I would take that service. Time and time again, I would take that service because it's so accessible.
I don't know if everyone else thinks that that's the best joke ever, but man, I was losing it in that hotel room. I'm like, "Yeah, we've passed this place called Blinds to Go." And you're like, "What is that? A car service for blind people?" And I know it's a good joke because we passed it again with a car full... I had my teammates, a car full of blind people with me. We passed it again and I told the joke, I was like, "Oh hey, it's Blinds to Go. That should be a car service for us blind people." And everyone fucking lost it. The whole car was just roaring. Even the sighted people found it funny. So kudos on your best joke of the year, Yves.

Yves Wermeling:
Best joke of the year.

Jennie Bovard:
Blinds to Go. Now this wouldn't be the Low Vision Moments podcast if I didn't have a couple of embarrassing stories. I don't think I've said anything particularly embarrassing yet. One day we were working in the garden, we didn't have enough soil, so we had to make a quick run to the garden center within walking distance from our home here, to go and pick up some more soil. You remember this, right?

Yves Wermeling:
Oh, do I.

Jennie Bovard:
Oh, do you? Oh, yeah, because it wasn't long ago at all.

Yves Wermeling:
It wasn't long ago. And it was memorable.

Jennie Bovard:
We're at the garden center. Obviously, I'm not just going to go and buy soil. I have to poke around and see what kind of goodies they have here for my plant and garden addiction. So I was looking around, we were looking around together, making our way through the garden center, looking at the deals, what's available. We had picked up a couple of things, you're carrying a tray and all of a sudden I say, "Hey Yves, is there anyone around right now? Anyone near us?" And what did you say?

Yves Wermeling:
I look around and I say, "Yeah, we're pretty clear."

Jennie Bovard:
Coast is pretty clear. So what do I do?

Yves Wermeling:
You let out a fart similar to A-10 Warthog attack plane.

Jennie Bovard:
I think we understand that it's probably loud. So I let it rip. And what did you say?

Yves Wermeling:
"Not clear enough for that." There's people in this building. Not just right next to us, but at the other end of the garden center. I'm sure they knew what was going on.

Jennie Bovard:
I can't tell how close these people are. Actually, I couldn't see anybody because it was so bright in there. I could just barely see in front of me. This is why consistency in communication is so important because usually before I let her rip, especially if we're out in public, if we're walking down the street, I usually have a code to let Yves know, "Hey, something's about to rip here." And you will say, "Oh no, there's someone right behind us." Or something to that effect. Usually I go, "Uh-oh." That's code for, "I'm about to let her rip."

Yves Wermeling:
"I need to fart."

Jennie Bovard:
Now everyone knows far too much about me and how I go about farting in public. So we're going to be more consistent moving forward in our communication. Well, this year has been good. The year since you've been on, love is more blind than ever. I'm so glad that you're my partner in life, my partner in crime. So Yves, any final thoughts?

Yves Wermeling:
No. I think your podcast is awesome. I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Jennie Bovard:
I love you, too.

Yves Wermeling:
You got a great show, and I'm really happy to be part of it.

Jennie Bovard:
And another thing. You often make it possible for me to record undisturbed by furry animals, our fur kids. You take care of the pooch and make sure that he's out of the way and exercised. So thank you.

Yves Wermeling:
We're already sleeping down here right now.

Jennie Bovard:
Is he down there with you right now?

Yves Wermeling:
He's on the Poang in front of me.

Jennie Bovard:
Oh, he's on the chair in front of you? All right, my love. I will see you in a moment when you come up from the basement.

Yves Wermeling:
Oh, I can come up from the basement?

Jennie Bovard:
Yeah, we'll allow it. Well, now you are all caught up on what's happened for us, my lovely husband, Yves and I, in the last 12 months or so. You've heard the fun, the embarrassing, the new experiences, and the touching moments. And I mean, are we not now your favourite couple? Come on. We must be. It's okay if we're not. It's okay.
If you have any feedback or comments for the podcast, you know I'd love to hear from you. Send an email to podcasts@ami.ca or give us a call at +1 866-509-4545. Once more, the phone number is +1 866-509-4545. Just make sure to mention Low Vision Moments in the message please and thank you. You can come and follow me on Instagram. I am there under UberBlonde4. That is U-B-E-R-B-L-O-N-D-E and the number four.
I'm sending so much love to the following people who make this podcast possible. Marc Aflalo is our Technical Producer. Ryan Delehanty is our Podcast Coordinator. And Andy Frank is the Manager at AMI Audio. And until next time, my friends, is it clear? Really though, is it? Okay, because uh-oh.