It really does seem like yesterday that we were together in Hartford for the 2001 Connecticut State Convention. Have seven months really passed? In the summer of 1999, my wife and I bought a cute little two-story colonial in Bloomfield, New Jersey. We hesitated a little, because the house is over sixty years old and we are so unhandy, but the quietness of the neighborhood, and the close proximity to busses and stores made the house impossible to pass up.

Well, we had to catch up on a lot of deferred maintenance, such as a new roof, kitchen and bathroom floors, windows and chimney. When I spoke to you about this during the Convention, I thought we were finished for a while.

During the early spring, when the drought was at its peak, we started noticing water in our basement. What could it be? The nice plumber informed us that it was raw sewage, and that our pipe was in imminent danger of collapse. "You had better replace it sooner rather than later!" he advised, with dollar signs dancing in his head, "or you'll really have problems!"

What choice did we have? The front yard had to be dug up, the retaining wall destroyed, and the sidewalk torn up. Then everything had to be replanted and reconstructed. Oh for the good old days of my condos in Danbury and Stamford!

It's fun to work with Joe Ruffalo and the other Federationists in New Jersey. A hallmark of Mr. Ruffalo's presidency is the truly outstanding partnership the Federation has forged with the New Jersey Commission for the Blind under the directorship of Jamie Hilton. For years the Commission has funded 2 Newsline sites, and was instrumental in bringing Jobline to New Jersey.

The Commission sponsors a program called LEAD, where blind adults mentor blind teenagers. President Ruffalo coordinates the program. The kids do a wide variety of things to help build camaraderie and confidence, including trips to the National Center, Washington DC, and a trip to my house to learn how a blind couple manages and organizes their home. I never considered myself a model of neatness or organization, but I raced around doing a lot of cleaning and organizing before the 3 teenagers and 2 mentors showed up at our house. This was before the raw sewage started leaking into our basement.

My employer, De Witt & Associates, conducted 3 computer-training seminars with a total of 14 teenagers under the sponsorship of the LEAD program. We showed them how to create tables and change fonts in Microsoft Word, download Braille books from the NLS web Site, read various newspapers online, and listen to radio stations from around the world over the Internet.

I taught some of the classes, and I'm truly impressed with the teenagers' eagerness to learn and their willingness to help one another. President Ruffalo has set a wonderful tone in this program, one reflecting the best qualities of Federationism.

As some of you know, I worked for IBM more than 20 years. In 1998, I took a job with De Witt & Associates, an assistive technology consultancy firm. For 18 months, I worked with blind New Jersey Rehab clients, evaluating their assistive technology needs, recommending necessary assistive technology, setting up the equipment, and training the clients in its use. I worked with a wide variety of people in a good number of job situations. In January, 2000, I became the company's Director of Sales and Marketing.

One of the most interesting services we've developed since then is EnableLink.com, an online community for people who are blind and visually impaired, their friends, families, and colleagues. The site is simple to use with screen readers and magnifiers, has an interesting variety of articles written by blind people, and it's supported by an easy-to-use shopping mall, full of low tech and high tech items of all descriptions. If you haven't yet seen this site, I encourage you to visit us at www.enablelink.com. At this writing, Chris Kuell is prominently featured with a review of the Spider-Man movie. There are also articles about starting a home-based business, and making money at writing.

If you can write, and have something interesting or funny to say, Enablelink is always on the lookout for fresh new articles. Mail your submissions to Editor@enablelink.com. We pay fifty dollars per published article.

I'm looking forward to seeing many of you in Louisville in July. I miss you all.

For more information, E-mail us at: info@nfbct.org