Another Snow Story

Monday's are getting more and more difficult for me to negotiate unless I do major pre-Monday morning preparations. The snow had been falling all day Sunday. I had actually been out earlier in the day and shoveled the ramp with the help of my neighbor. But the snow continued to fall not heavenly, just steadily but there were hours during the fall I would characterize as “heavy”. Either way I had Dianne drive me up to the train station—I could never had made the trip up to the train station myself. In fact when I did get to the Planetarium Station ( downtown Salt Lake) I got stuck in the snow no less then three times. The environment this morning was deadly downtown. Street were being plowed huge city dump trucks throwing literally tons of snow, slush and grunge into huge “rooster tails) clearing the streets but plugging up the curb cuts to thew sidewalk till the next thaw. Even at this point even if I cold gotten onto the sidewalk I still would have been stranded since no sidewalks had been cleared this morning in Murray or downtown Salt Lake.

The Planetarium Station basically off loads its folks in the middle of the block in the middle of the street. The transit customer (me) then has to cross a set of railroad(Trax tracks) to the cross a street to get to the sidewalk. This morning there was so much snow on the railroad tracks I had to cross I got immediately stuck right on the center of the tracks—luckily there was not a training coming but one would be coming very shortly. Luckily for me there was a good Samaritan who pushed me over the tacks and out onto the street which I crossed but then dove feet first int the pile of snow in the access cut away to th sidewalk and again luckily for me the same Samaritan was still somewhere behind me and pushed me up to the sidewalk which luckily had been snow-blown and I was OK till I got to the intersection across from my office where again there were mounds of snow. I knew there was no way I was going to get through the snow drifts filling the curb cuts...however I did notice the intersection crossing the street the other way had less snow in the curb-cut do to more homeless has crossed making their way to the shelter and morning breakfast. I got out onto th street where the plows have been clearing, I watched the traffic closely and when the lights turned sprinted in my chair, fish tailing all the way to the other side and there as the same problem. There was no way I was going to be able to break the snow piled in curb cut but if I could travel up the street to the, IN THER STREET I could get to the drive way to the sidewalk in front of the office and get to my place of work. Luckily it was five minutes to 7:00 a.m. And there still was not a morning rush, for a host of reasons, so if I watched the lights again and waited I should be OK,. I waited like a sprinter waiting for the starters pistol to sound, a couple of stacks of cars passed and then came a significant break in traffic and off I went almost spinning a dough nut and fish tailing, again like a crazy man. I made it but had to pull up short, again because if the amount of snow and I piled in the curb cut and realized even if I could access side walk it would do no good since the sidewalk to our office which sits sort of in the middle of the block had not been cleared-there was snow way I was going to break that kind of snow—but if I could stay in the street and roll down the center of that street I could make it to the driveway. Again I had to watch the lights sand wait for the cars to pass and at the right time I sprinted hoping if a vehicle did appear behind me they would see the reflective eyes on the back of the chair.

The break in traffic came and I was off. I came up to the drive way say lot of the snow had been mashed down from early arrivers but there was still quite a lot of snow which not but if I could hit the drive at full speed I could do it. I did it. I hit the driveway full blast. I rattled my teeth but survived the bump, stayed in my chair and made it to dry sidewalk.. I made it—I was a couple of minutes late but into to work. I should be OK going home..There is a jazz game tonight and people look to have been working on the walks all day—Dianne said she would pick me up at the station tonight and no more snow I forecast for th rest of the week—now to survive the cold....

RedBox Sunday

The promised snow finally moved into the valley and has been snowing all day which is fine with me since for the snow to fall the temperatures has to warm up a little. The temperatures have been quite cold all week long so cold in this area that people actually got spooked and started shutting down schools, universities and even places of work. My boss actually sent me home last Tuesday which I thought was a little bit over reactionary. But today the now started to fall. I have shoveled the ramp with the help of my neighbor this morning and now the ramp looks as if it needs to be shoveled again and the white stuff is still falling, not heavy but steady.

I just returned about an hour ago from returning the Redbox movies I rented yesterday. I really like the whole Redbox experience, renting the disc for just $1.00(usually) being able to return the rental to any of the Redbox outlets which in my area are three and the fact I can return them anytime in the twenty-four hour period. If there is a draw back it is one does have to return the rental the next day. Returning the item does not seem an issue when rented but comes the light of a new day and even though returning the product is not a big deal...it is.

So in today's snow storm I had to do the deed.--actually I could have saddled up and driven the van toc the 711, Micky D's or market but seemed like too much work and Dianne volunteered to drive me to one of those locations which again, seemed a little over kill just to return and deep down I think wanted to risk the adventure of driving my power chair up to the 711, in the snow to see if I could actually successfully navigate the neighborhood in this kind of snow. I had a full charge and the will, so why not?

The plows had been working the snow fall all morning,I had noticed which I think I a double edged sword: the streets would be cleared down to the pavement but the plows push huge quantities of snow into then drive way and curb cuts making getting into and out of the street almost impossible. But I felt the snow was still new and slushy and as long as I kept full head of steam I should be able to doze my way through and the fact that this is Sunday traffic would be limited unless I got caught in the time church lets out and the local Mo heard stampedes home to their roast beef and mashed potato dinner. Dianne bundled me up with stocking cap, yellow winter coat and gloves and out I blasted. I went down to the neighbors, who I know does an extra good job of removing the snow from his driveway into the street and I was gone. I immediately noted the snow was deeper then I had anticipated even on those part of the streets the plows had graded. I slipped and slided but kept forward momentum and soon I was at the 711 my closest Redbox. There to my disappointment and concern the Box was “Out of Order making necessary to cross State street.

State street the main drag through Murray and well traveled was clear but wet and I realized none of the sidewalks had been clear of snow add to this the piles of snow caused by the plows I was getting a little spooked. The only was I was going to be able to get to McDonalds was to travel a half a block North and enter through the DRIVE THRU driveway. I sat in the middle of the street and waited for the light to turn green then bolted cross the State street. I blasted through the embankment caused by the plows and I good. In a few moments of slipping and fishtailing I made it up to the door and as in side. I fed the DVDs into the Redbox and warmed up a bit and then bolted for home.

I noticed as I on my gloves and adjusted my cap under my coats hood that my wheelchair's power level was at 79 percent—I had used far more power then I had anticipated, the snow depth ate much more power then I thought and I did have my cell phone so if I drained out of energy I could call and Dianne could rescue me if needed.

But I made it. Wet and a little chilled and with 60% of my charge I plowed through to the neighboor's drive way and was home free. Al was still out clearing snow from his driveway and we chatted for a moment and then I cruised home and up the ramp( which needs cleared, again) and into my warm home to begin turkey chili and finish the rest of my holiday weekend.

Snow Snot

I lagged just a few moments this mis morning as I was getting ready to go to work. It snow and snowed over the weekend leaving ice flows of snow snot every where. Snow snot? Snow snot is boogers, clumps of snow which has hardened into ice. Usually, these boogers are left on sidewalks which have not been cleaned of snow and left to melt and then refreeze making the sidewalk useless for wheelchair travel until scraped or thawed—the place where snow snow gathers are driveways where the drive way meets the road. These driveways are rarely cleaned by the home owner and are often great spots for snow plows to dump plow full of snow. The homeowner then just bashes through the snow pile leaving two narrow tire troughs and the rest of the snow usually turns to ice till the next thaw.

Usually these small ice flows do not bother me. I usually find away round them one way or another and get to where I am going. This morning I just just dawdled it seemed. Frigid air moved in behind this weekend's storm forcing me to be sure I had adequate clothing. This weekend Dianne repaired my heavy weather jacket from last year—she zipped in the liner which irked me at the time. The reason this irked me is any thing which closes the inside of the jacket makes it difficult for me to pull the jacket over my head. I also dawdled getting the things I needed for work, lunch, crackers, letter to Mac and then pulling the jacket and gloves on, finding my hat and getting situated in the powerchair. This all took more time then I thought but I still thought I would get to the bus stop in time even if I had to flag the bus down while madly cross State. What I had not counted on was the ice. Bridget and came over yesterday and cleaned the driveway and my wheelchair ramp but nor the driveway to the street—no one did but my neighbor who does everything perfectly and I was counting on this and sure enough when I got to Al's driveway it was clean and dry—it took me seconds out of my way but got me out into thw street and on my way to the bustop. As long as I stayed in the street I was OK—I ran into lot of rough ice as I crossed the great church parking lot on m way to State street but nothing unmanageable. I crossed State street with little problem but one I got on the sidewalk I had an issue. No one had cleaned the sidewalks and there was just a narrow path where pedestrians had broken snow the day before. I was fortunate in that the bus stop is right by the driveway and I was ale crash through the ice flow to get me onto the sidewalk but I was not going to go much further from there.

It was weird I got to the bus stop just a few minutes later then I knew the bus usually comes. I was close enough time wise that I should have the bus coming and I know if the drive saw me he would board me—worse case if I was too late still should have seen the vehicle but I saw nothing northing of the bus stop so I was hoping against hope that the bus had not come—I was wrong. I must have been much later then he clock on my power chair indicated. I waited for thirty minutes for the bus—the wait was cold but not to bad, I was bundled but really, I am going to have to be better prepared for Monday mornings from now till Spring..more snow is called for tonight!

"Tag up and Go!"

April Motley died last weekend, April was 51 and where April was not one of my best friends she was a friend, in that constellation of people of people I had shared something unique—one of those folk who for one reason or another always kept showing up in my life. I believe April was part of my Karass, the term Vonnegut coined to denote a group of people who, often unknowingly, are working together to do God's will. Now I don't know about God's will but we seemed to keep running into each other.
I first met, really met April when I was one on the principals of the 2^nd West Acting Company; a class put together by another friend Lori B. and myself and held at the Utah Independent Living Center, where I worked at the time. Actually Lori was the real drive behind starting the company and I really think she populated its actors with April, myself and a few others who could not say “no”. April wrote one play I know of but was always ready to be part of the play of scene. April and I were local political activists. April because she actually wanted to be, because sher believed in the causes she put herself on the line fore—where I was on the line for the paycheck first and the commitment second. April was a believer.

Over the first years of the acting company's life the company moved from the independent living center to Art Access. It was during this time I learned that April was also an artist fabricator sculpting in metals. She had numerous creations in shows of Art Access and the annual Christmas sale of that organization. I believe one of April's specialties were kaleidoscopes—beautiful hand crafted pieces which were works of art to look at as well as through. I would characterize April's art as being 'high end'. I would have loved to see her do her art full time to the point where she would have been able to support herself with her craft but I don't she she was able to have ever gotten enough exposure for her pieces to sell plus April was caught in the American tragedy of being a creative, energetic women with a disability in America. She was penalized by the benefits system which she was forced to survive on—it was difficult for April to have enough raw materials to to keep her product line current with demand.

April's passing has had a significant impact on me. April died of heart failure. A massive heart attract, in the night, as she slept. I am older then April was by nine years. I am a person, also, with a significant disability who is not in the best of shape with some major self defeating even life threatening habits I need to correct to stretch my time on this dust ball as long as possible. As I wrote on my friend Jerry Johnston's Face Book, this morning, it's time to 'tag up' on base and play it safe a few days before sealing the next base of life.

Late for Supper--

You know, sometimes when you walk or roll into a situation you just know something is going to happen—you may not know what it is or just how big it is going to get but you get a feeling such was the scene last night on my UTA bus waiting to go home.

My commute home has started earlier then usual when the boss told us to “go home”. In the early, dark November evening getting cold, the wind was building and it seemed the best thing to do was be on the way home. By the time I had got my computer shut down and shimmied into my red jacket I was only getting away fifteen minutes earlier then usual but still I just might catch the early train. There was a ball game last night so I decided to catch my train at the Energy Solutions Arena and goggle at the people for a few minutes. I was surprised when I did get to my station in Murry that I was early but not early enough to make a difference. There was my regular bus and my regular driver just earlier. I was just getting there at the beginning of the “wait cycle”rather then getting there a the end of the “wait cycle”. Still not a problem—I would just relax the 20 minutes all good.

As I said earlier, you can just tell when someone is going to be trouble, it's an energy, an aura or maybe just a weakening of the Force. This invisible cloud of negativity surrounds them. I felt this immediately as an older women—maybe in her late 40's to mid 50's climbed on to the bus and demanded when the bus would be living. The bus operator responded “20” minutes and the passenger was not happy but did not say anything further just collected her self and too a seat directly across the isle from me and started making cell phone calls. The first was to her bank—which turns out was her destination yesterday early evening. The time was about 5:50 PM and she found her bank closed at 6:00 PM and she was on the bus going to the bank to put enough money into her account to, hopefully keeping some checks she had outstanding from 'bouncing'. This lady was a 'loud talker' and she was putting nit all out there—her name, her account number and even her phone number as well as the address as she directed the bank employee. However, I did relax a little when I did hear the conversation which made since of her demand f when the bus would be leaving. I sat back and enjoyed her phone conversations wondering if I should be writing down items like her account or phone number...too obvious.

The coach I was in was warm and cozy as I dozed waiting for the last train in the cycle to arrive and the driver button us up and leave. When finally the driver boarded the bus to head out there were maybe seven folks aboard, chatting, laughing, texting and calling and like me dozing. The driver mounted his perch and engaged the transmission and we pulled away from the curb heading for Street. We had just pulled out of the 'bull pen' and were on city street still going relatively slow—I bet we were not even going twenty mile an hour when th driver slammed on the brakes of the bus and veered over to the right shoulder of the street. My powerchair was strapped in to the tie-downs jet I was pulled hard to the right. I just held on being jolted awake. The negative lady the talker was actually thrown from her seat and slammed into the buses bulk smashing her eye into the unforgiving steel of the bulkhead releasing a torrent of blood an angst. It is still strange to be me as I saw this event happen out of the corner of my eye—we weren't going that fast but she just sort of flipped over and hit her face. I think she may have been sitting on the edge of the seat in just a way that stopping the bus that fast just kept her in motion.

A pedestrian had stepped infront of the bus and the driver reacting slamming on the breaks and veering to the right curb. The talker screamed,” WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!!” The driver shields up “ yelled back I had to stop a person stopped infront of the bus. Talker: “Oh?.” Blood cascaded down the talker's face dazed and confused—she was not going to make the deposit tonight that was for sure. The talker was still on the floor with her had to her new wound. Finally handed a pile paper towels to “Stander”, a lanker gabber who had been visiting with the driver while we waited the twenty minutes, to hand to the bleeding talker. The Talker swabbed and there was blood but not a gusher.

Not that everything slid in to slow motion at the time of the accident but everything sure felt as if it did following the event. Talker was asked is she wanted to o to the hospital “will it cost me?” “No” the driver said it is probably best for you to go but the para medics should be soon and we'll see what they say. “OK. I just can't go to the hospital if I have to pay.”

The para medics finally showed up, the accident took place right in front of the Inter-mountain Hospital Complex, better know as his o just the Death Star. Less then 200 hundred yards away maybe 500 by ambulance. The para medic indicated it was probably a $1000.00 ride...again Talker asked and said he was—Ok she would go if it did not cost her anything. The ambulance took her away, running “silent” with lights flashing. Still we sat there—statements had to be taken from all on board the bus plus the driver hat to wait for supervisors to show up with risk management monkeys: more questions and statements.
I got home an hour later then usual, Dianne was worried but I had called the bus, the rain held off and we ate chicken breast with hominy.

It's kinda a weird but a couple of years ago I first began to notice that many people with disabilities, particularly those with spinal cord injury(SCI) spoke of the date of their injury as their second birthdate. Like I said I thought this was a little strange but I guess I too have began thinking about the incident which forever changed my life—I think, over all, for the best.

What do you call this date? Maybe a “crip-date” 'D-date' or even “C-Date? '”D” of course would stand for 'disability' date and C would be fore “Change” what ever you get the picture. For me that date ifs July 16, 1966, Saturday some time around three thirty in the afternoon. The day had been a typical Idaho July day, hot and dry. I was fifteen, I had my daytime drivers license and access to my brother Yamaha 80 cc motorcycle. I owned a perfectly good 55 cc Yamaha “step through” but much I chose to use my brother's bike because that bike was m,ore powerful, looked better and brother was a thousand of miles away in North Carolina. I had found I could turn the ignition with a metal finger nail file. This was also the first year I actually began working—working for someone other then my parents—which mean a lot. I had two regular lawn mowing jobs( which I used th cycle to buzz back and forth to) and I was two days into my first “real” job 20 + hours a week cooking chicken and everything else at a KFC in Boise Idaho.

The afternoon on my D-day. I had just mowed a lawn across town from my house and had sprinted home to change into my white clothes to cook chicken for the rest of the day. I was scheduled to start at 4:00 and work till close of operation. I was running late and did not take time to bathe or anything. My feet had been stained green from mowing the lawn in my barefeet—the feet were covered by fresh white socks., my favorite white tennis shoes ( my only tennis shoes and I really like them), my only pair of white levi's and white( old church shirt). I really liked the out fit because the white rally off set my tan or made the tan stand out. I really wasn't late for work but I was excited to get to the job my buddy Charley Ainge had got me. The job was new, working away from home on my own and really begin to start making my own money—no more asking, asking asking—boy was that thought process wrong.

I came up to the intersection of Boise Avenue and Broadway. I was in no hurry shift did not begin till 4:00 I still had thirty minutes...lots of time. I know I looked both ways before I pulled out onto Broadway heading North. I was hit by a South bound Senior driver exceeding the speed limit, the limit was 30 MPH. I was hit almost broad side throwing me back and striking my head on the windshield cracking my skull and bruising and pinching my spinal cord: instantly paralyzing me for the rest of my life.

The other day I was scanning some documents on to my hard drive and came across an article documenting my “D-Day”. I posted the article to my FB and have been at the responses I have gotten—you know “challenging” “brave” or bad the image made these folks feel for me, having lost so much. This was not the intent of the posting—I just did not have many other meaningful images from my adolescent life. I am OK and doing just fine.

Suday Afternoon

It's cold out there in the world. Not bone chilling sub-zero cold but just enough and add to that gray low hanging clouds with a threat of rain or snow later this afternoon that I just do not want to leave the house until tomorrow morning at five minutes to six when I renter the world driving my chair up to the bus stop and head into work. Tomorrow morning I well be ready for the cold, dress in layers, a hood and my gloves. But not today and I should go out to the market to get the items we need, milk, fresh fruit, butter, deli meat, croissants and potato chips. We will survive on frozen food and can good and cable.

It's early Sunday afternoon, the end of a holiday weekend for me. I was off Thursday to celebrate veteran's Day we did not do anything except hang out—Friday I had to go into the city for a board meeting. The meeting is two hours long and they serve a lunch—a potato bar this—I used to hate potato bars—I saw potato as hot lunch cop outs but I have began to like the potato bars more and more as I smashed potatoes, in the foil, drench them with sour cream. I stay away from all the things like the chili, mushrooms, olives and what ever management deems will make a low budget meal appear more then it is. I was reminded as I entered the board room that I was to be the major portion of entertainment for the day's meeting. I was to give an overview of one of the programs that I sit on the advisory board and not that it matters but I was one of the players who got the project off the ground. I surprised myself and those present I pulled it off giving something like 20-30 minute presentation. I do wish I had remembered and had been a little better prepared.

Make the Money Flow Stop Please!!!

Last night as I was leaving work—I was a little rushed as the fellow I work with Frank, who typically leaves an half four before I do was encouraging me to leave early so I might beat what looked like a mighty terse storm. I engaged my chair and reversed away from my work area and as I did I perceived what sounded like a little 'zip' followed by clank,pop and grinding noises. I could not figure out what was wrong and and Frank and I puzzled over noises for a bit but I did not seem to be experiencing any negative affects to my chair experience except acoustically. So I headed off into the night and got home with out incident.

This morning's ride into work was also with out incident except a lot of noise so much more Frank was concerned as I clanked into the office. I did call my main wheelchair tech who advised me to get in as soon as I could but did not sound concerned—Josh just told me to come in for the “ten minute quickie”. But by mid-morning Frank had me convinced I needed yo get down to shop as soon as I could before the whole chair just shivered and fell apart. By11:30 am I was gone on an early lunch busing down to Magic Rest. I had a bit of a concern regarding the charge of my battery—I should have plugged in and charged as soon as I got to work but did not. So I was keeping an eye on my charge indicator thinking I would plug in once I got to magic rest.

I was able to get to MR sand Josh readily indicated that it was a bearing in my caster but I needed all four wheels replaced= $200.00. It\ the cost of life never stops and Of course the change out could not have been done today—the casters will have to be shipped in meaning I am sure I will have the sound of death for at last the next two weeks. We at least ordered the parts in and now the wait begins. We checked as long as I was there and Of course insurance is not going to touch the cost at all—so I am on my own.

Th first of the week I had Dianne remove the construction vest—you all remember last year when the construction guy took off his reflective vest and draped the vest over the back of my chair as a protective device since I was on the road so much in the dark. I really did not like the vest but Dianne thought the juster sweet and another level of safety never hurts. But the vest was literally a rag by the end of the summer. Dianne was even more concerned with nothing back there now so she pulled out her trust roll of reflective tape and had her craft eyes for the back of my head rest. I'll try to post an image shortly.

Burros of the Apocalypse

Its a short week, a holiday week, even if it is one of the “smaller” holidays it is still a holiday. Veterans Day! No work for me , banks, Federalies and most other governmental entities; add on the three day weekend already enjoyed by State of Utah workers and I am looking at some substantial time off. It's not that we will do anything other then maybe go out to eat somewhere along the way, get a couple of Red box, cook and hopefully spend some quality time on the computers. I have sent for some animation software I hope will help me with my Burros of the Apocalypse (BOTA) project. I don't know where I want to go with this project but it is sort of fun and something that could occupy my time over a long holiday weekend.

Hopefully this will be a slow week for the office. I did my broadcast last week since our holidays falls on Thursday of this week and really I am almost done for this year. One more broadcast in December and that should do it.

Printing

The wind is howling as a winter storm approaches, this looks to be the firs real storm of the winter season but until the storm get here(tonight by the weather guys account) the wind is whipping everything outside round the house and doing a number on all trees with any kind of leaves at all. We set the cocks back an our, actually the things like cell phones and computer set themselves back. /we still now have to wonder wound the house and turn all the other time pieces back.

A couple of weeks ago Dianne contracted with an attorney to work on our case with the banks. I knew this would throw Dianne into research mode( at which she is excellent) and would start asking that I start printing documents at work to bring home for her case—and this request because we currently don't have printer up to task which is going to be placed on it, I decided we needed a better printer then what we are using now. Remember last Monday's post talking about the issue with the HP 6510 I picked up last week? This is where the new printer project remained until yesterday. The reason I had waited an entire week do gt this accomplished was that I had managed to get a similar printer we have hooked to my laptop working to the point where we could do some printing but was difficult at best and besides we had this brand new system just starring at us, mocking us. So yesterday we collected all the pieces of the printer: the printer itself, software, receipts and documentation and crammed all into the Styrofoam, plastic wrap and box as best we could and hauled the whole mess back to Best Buy.

Over the years I have brought a lot of stuff back to the vendor for one reason o another and had learned unless one has all these items in place and on hand the “return” can go very poorly and even when one has all the items needed the retailer often fights the 'return' nightly. But pleasantly, we were surprised at how smoothly the exchange went. We even found we could upgrade to this year's model, a wireless model no less, for the same price. We did this exchange later in the day and by the time we had returned home we were exhausted and we decided to veg for the remainder of the night catching up on some recorded television.

This morning we finished setting up thee printer, went to breakfast and came home and finished the project. It took an hour and we had to struggle a bit to get the desk top to recognize the new equipment and we had to settle on a USB connection rather then the wireless but it is now printing away and all are happy. We still plan to get Mark A over someday soon to see if we cannot get the wireless to work just because we can. But now we can print, I don't have to use the office equipment and I have my laptop to myself and all is well.

Toilet From Hell

Heat vent from Hell in the ceiling of the accessible men's restroom

I love my “window on the west” I can sit and watch the world go by on Third West all day long. I see fire engines, ambulances an missionaries all day long and even in the past presidential motorcades and elephants. I love my window. My window just might be the best perk of my job however, there is one draw back, because the window is exposed to the outside, naturally the outside cold seeps into my office all winter long. I finally got a small space heater which runs continually from late October to Early April and aside from the small roar and worried looks from Franks when he dares to enter my office I survive the winter just fine. But as nice as office seems to be—there is that spot under my computer area, next to the window wall that the heat never quiet seems to get—my office cannot compare to the heat which wafts over me each time I enter the 'mens' restroom.

We share common restrooms with the rest of the building which is OK with me especially since we are currently the only occupants of the building. The restrooms are right across the hall from our office and sit in back of the elevator which has the “out of order” sign taped to the front so supposedly no one will use then elevator as the upper floors are being renovated for then Chinese who are supposed to move in sometime—the Mexicans left a couple of months ago now. And there is no heat in the foyer except what ever bleed out heat happens when doors to the bathroom or our offices are open. The heat in the restrooms is wonderful—it is like they are the bathrooms from Hell! This annotation is not fair since it makes the restrooms sound like they are horrible and they're not, least not the men's. These are the restrooms from hell because of the huge amounts of heated air flowing into rooms.

I must confess with the advent of the winter's 'heat storm ' in that room I would consider moving my office in there except then I would loose my view. At my request a couple of years ago building management took out the commode partition changing the restroom from a urinal and a toilet with the toilet having a wall and door when management put in the grab bars or access and then repainted and tiled the whole room, making the room bright, accessible and pleasing large.

I even got a mirror down low so I can check my self before leaving the room to be sure I am not dragging any trains of toilet paper behind me as I leave. There is even a lock on the door for added privacy. This is more then I deserve I readily admit—maybe the beautiful restroom from hell is the result that at different points of the month populations of disability in this building swells either way I end up being the winner—lucky me...its about time.

To Print of Not to Print...

The weekend came and went as weekend tend to do, and even though I am committed to squeeze all I can out of my weekend I tend to just sit ad let the days creep by and then on Sunday night a I watch the nine o clock news I wish I has done more.

Dianne has been struggling with her case against the bank and credit card insurance companies and needed multiple copies of document she has either prepared or images of pay stubs,invoices and utility bills. The printer We have been using is a little HP we got a number of years ago and has worked like a champ till last Summer when part on the machine just wore out—it actually still printed just fine but the supporting machinery wore out. I purchased a printer, which was just like the printer I use at the office a HP oFFICE jET 5610—his was a floor model so I got a deal and received everything in a giant plastic bag and went home and put the whole mess in the closet and forgot about it for months. Dianne had found a way to coax the old printer to work just enough to meet her needs and I went out and purchased a smaller printer to hook up to my lap top in the front of the house which worked just and since I got the HP 5610 for the desk top which Dianne uses I got me another HP small computer for less then 70.00 which worked great for my needs: printing word documents not so hot on images though. This worked fairly well until a couple of weeks ago when I needed a printer and a copier(scanner) so I finally de-bagged the 5610 and hooked it up and it worked great.

All last week Dianne has been amassing huge amounts of data of which she needs hard copy and has been askig me to make copies at he office to bring home. There was is an issue with my 5610 about it not being able to print Open Office documents.( I have sensed remedied this) I don't have an issue with this except for the time involvements and not doing right. I just want Dianne to have all the supports at home that she needs. Therefore after work on Thursday evening Dianne and I went over to best buy and purchased a new, in the box, HP OJ 6500 series printer ( cabled model I did not see the need for wireless). We got the machine home and tried to hook it up the next day and Of course we did not have the equipment we needed bu we did not know it then—the machine just could not find the printer. Dianne is hammered for time and she needed to focus on the writing so I put the new printer on hold and focused on the my lap top ( which does not have Word and there could not print the OO (Open Office) documents. I eventually drug out my older Toshiba LP and actually got it up and running and able to print the materials Dianne needs.

The rest of the weekend I either cooked, worked on my system or supported Dianne—it was a quiet weekend and a wet cold one but enjoyable all things considered. I just wish we could have got the printer operational.