Quail Gangs Of The Street

We live a couple blocks off of State Street here in Murray, this is great for me, a person who uses a power chair for mobility. If I've got the power I am able to just hop in my chair and drive up to State Street and get coffee or pizza or even do some light shopping at ShopKo which is across the street on State. Last night Dianne made a great chicken burrito casserole. She just thrown the casserole in the oven and I decided I needed some form of cookies for later on in the evening when we might watch a few videos. So off I went.

I wandered up the streets to State Street, crossed the street in the new construction area and head off to ShopKo. Saturday night at ShopKo is kind of sad, I think I counted four staff at least at the store and now's probably two more bodies than who is their shopping. I wandered up and down newly stocked aisles of Halloween materials. Costumes, makeup and literally tons of candy. Wandered over to the electronics section, dug through the bins of $4.99 videos to see if there were any treasures I needed . I found a couple of movies and a couple packages of cookies and headed home. I cut through a neighborhood of post-World War II homes on the way to my house, these are nice brick two and three-bedroom homes with nice yards. Is a quiet neighborhood safe to drive your chair down the middle of the road as I usually do. I was quite pleasantly surprised when I turned the corner and I noticed a great number of Quail Crossing the road. As I looked closer I noticed there were more Quail than I usually see crossing the road , there is a huge number of birds. We have a family or two of quail in our neighborhood but we must have more predators in our neighborhood because I never see more than three or four adult quail at a time. In the spring I can see lots of small quail families but they must die off as the summer goes on. These quail families seem to be huge. Whole clutches of eggs must've hatched with just few casualties over the summer. As I watched I grabbed my tablet and decided I would film as much as I could. I took a couple minutes of film and was surprised to see my end result. I enjoyed the footage of quail running back and forth but I watched more and more I saw an actual battle going on between what seemed to different coveys of quail. I was fascinated with this small snippet of animal kingdom. I was also impressed with how came the two coveys seem to be. I slowly motored by chair forward as far as I could before the Quail would run but they never ran they just sort of got out of the way. I wish I had a zoom feature on my tablet camera. I uploaded the video to my Facebook account and I noticed that the youtube quality of the video was was less than watching the raw video.

The video was a nice ending to a nice Saturday night. Glad I was there to see this small event of the universe. Check it out, enjoy.

Challenges All Dy Long

Yesterday was a strange day all the way around. Forget the fact that I felt immensely sleep deprived from some sleep issues I've been struggling with this last week. So I was moving slowly and glad to have a day I would be able to stay home all day and work on projects around the house. But I was feeling grainy that's for sure. Dianne was called out to help Bridget with tending Asher choose one which left me home alone. I spent the morning blogging and getting dressed and heading out to the garden. I looked at the plants and spent a little time watering.

The path to the garden has me go around the north end of the house concrete path that conveniently sets in the shade of the garage. After I had looked at the vegetables I parked in the shade tilted back in my chair and was going to work with on my tablet for a while dictating some emails and possibly a letter two and as I was sitting there I noticed my power chairs control box just went dead. This was a bit disconcerting especially as I try to reactivate the controller(keep in mind the controller box operates the entire power chair, with the controller in-operable I am and in-operable). I have to admit I was not panicking at this point and usually I am, I have full charge on my tablet, a full charge on my cell phone which is also within easy access and I just drained my bladder so I is good for four hours at least. I knew pretty comfortably that I could ride out whatever I needed to. So, it is of interest I did call Alpine medical which is useless but it was a step that I went through just to say that I had turned all the stones I needed. Oddly enough in about 30 minutes the problem corrected itself, the chairs control box came back on and has worked great ever since.

Later in the afternoon I went next door and visited with my good friends Albert and Lenae, they were on their way out to do some business in their blue pickup truck. Went back to the house and was going to sit on the deck under the shade and again work on emails and letters for a while. I did this for a while tilted back in my chair. In order to read the screen on my tablet, I have found I need to often take my glasses off and I usually just raise them up on my four head are the top of my head and read this is okay in a sitting position but tilted back is another issue and often my glasses just fall off the back of my head which they did yesterday afternoon. I heard them hit the deck did not think too much of it and finished my reading and then was careful to advance my chair forward making sure I missed the specs. Train around I could not find them anywhere I looked high and low and then I realized most likely the glasses hit the deck and sprung off into the ground on the side of the ramp which is covered in debris leaves natural stuff make it very difficult for aged weak eyes to find stuff but I looked and I looked but could not find the glasses anywhere. Again I waited and I waited and finally Dan, my neighbor across the street who I called over on his return from work. Dan came over and with his younger eyes was able to spot the glasses, underneath the deck a ramp problem solved. But these two challenges wore me out this indeed was a long day.

Capra Diem Get Some Sleep

It's 9:30 a.m. I have been up since roughly 3:30 a.m. And I'm pretty tired I think I don't perk up a couple hours I may have to take the dreaded nap! I hate naps, I have always hated naps especially after my accident. I think I came too close to death during my accident in anything it takes away my consciousness I seem to shy away from it all cost. I should embrace naps open armed just can't do it. I have been able to take naps if I been so exhausted that I cannot function any longer without some sort of rest/sleep. I don't know if that will happen today. I can tank up on coffee and get into my power chair maybe and recline little or maybe a lot but maybe catch a few winks that way, particularly if I'm in the sunlight and they should be sunlight today. This might be enough sleep to get me through until this evening when I can try sleeping again.

I'm not sure what this issue of non-sleep is. I kind of suspect it has something to do with my nocturnal cathing regumine. I think I've briefly spoken to this issue before, it seems that's what my bladder equals or exceeds 400 cc I am “ that I need to drain”and so in the middle of the night when the bladder is full I need to drain and I am woken and I can't get back to sleep until I drag myself up transfer into my chair, going to the bathroom, open up and insert the catheter into my penisand then sit there and drain the urine into the toilet. I wish I could do this sleeping but no way. I have to be up and have to go into the bathroom. So many times the time I get back to bed I am in wake mode. Sometimes if it's still early in the evening say 1 AM 2 AM I can get back to sleep for a couple hours in those days I feel just great upon awakening. But it seems to me if it's 330 or later my chance of going back to sleep is nil. Many times I just lay there and think of all the fun things I can do the next day this is doubly so now that I'm into my retirement. Then the sad part is I am awake, kind of, but not functional enough to do all the great things I was thinking of. I don't think this is insomnia per se but sure can be frustrating. I think I probably have always been plagued with this issue but during my work life it was a nonissue because I can always get myself up and have a place to go even if I was tired and could struggle through work get home and get by for a couple hours until bedtime. Repeat five times a week and then use the weekend to catch things up i.e. sleep. Now I am in retirement I think it's different than having to figure out how to deal with these insomniac episodes. I have things I got a do, I have things I want to do I just have to be conscious enough to do them. It's always something. Sometimes I think I'm just a big crybaby – – know it's true, as my sister Fay, Fay will tell you not pull any punches to the hard-core woman somebody got a lot of just because she's Fay. Some off to seize the day and try to stay awake till the end.

A Time To Saw

My old 10 inch sawthat I have had nestled in a wheelbarrow, I have thought about using this shot mate but why not get the beautiful brand-new saw?

I am a fairly patient person, in fact I have often joked perhaps the most poignant lesson at spinal cord injury has bequeathed me is patients. As a person who is quadriplegic I have spent the last 40 years rely on other people to do things for me I cannot do for myself. I am blessed that a majority of the needs I have had I have been able to satisfy independently. This is no small thought for a person with limited hand function and no ability to stand our walk. But still there are things that I could not do myself most specific is moving stuff around, stuff that ends up in my computer room our stuff that ends up in my garage which is the same as my workshop. As any of you readers know I do try to work with wood. I love working with wood even though my skills are significantly limited. I can make sticks I love to make sticks, and sticks as you know, I used to cancel low-tech assistive technology or a grabber. And let's just say that I have needed my garage to bring these projects to pass but the last couple years the garage has been filled with all kinds of stuff.

This summer, with my conclusion of my one day a week volunteering at 211 has really been my first summer of retirement. If I had access to my wood shop I believe I would've spent a lot of time in that shop working on hooks. That alas did not happen but I can tell you now that it is about to happen. Even if I don't get access to my whole garage I have decided to clean off one part of my work bench so I can at least access my vices and some of my woodworking tools. I also plan to set up my Workmate outside of the garage and work with but would out there if and when the weather permits. I've taken a stand that I will no longer let anything stand in the way of my sticks.

Mark Anthony came over a couple weeks ago at my bidding and was able to give me a couple hours of time to help organize the garage and my workbench. We did not get as much done as I would've liked but we did clean off the end of the workbench, and Mark Anthony also was able to get me down a couple of pieces of Longwood that I used to cut into sticks. This is enough to get me going. Earlier this week I also was able to get my table saw out of the back of the garage and to a point where it may be usable. The tablesaw is a small Sears 10 inch saw that I keep in a wheelbarrow. The setup is low to the ground but fairly stable and I've been fairly safe over the years using this saw to rip wood. This setup is not safe I am the first to admit that however it's all that I've got right now. Now this may change as well. Dianne has always been concerned after my safety with the use of my Sears saw. She is encouraged me to upgrade my saw but I have been dragging my feet. I have done some searching online and found a beautiful contractors 10 inch saw by Porter Cole sold at Lowe's. The cost $299! This is overkill for what I need better be so nice to have a saw system it's easy to move and safe to use. Dianne says I need this I can't say that I need this but I can't say I would like this and maybe I deserve this at this point in my life.

Tablesaw and Other Wandering Thoughts

old table saw

The days are finally drying out a little this late Sunday afternoon in late August. We have had monsoon weather all month long great amounts of precipitation for this area of the desert. I have noted this in my Facebook account and everyone seems to respond that it is not weird or strange weather rather than be concerned I should be grateful. Grateful though I am not I feel shortchanged the summer of wetness. There are only so many days of dry hot weather available in any calendar year and I am not satiated yet this year of wet summer days. In fact one day this past week the day was so chilly I wore long pants in the middle of August! It is odd to see the amount of vegetation/greenery there is in the mountains above Salt Lake. Usually this time of year the mountains are dry and usually there is a fire somewhere because the dryness but not this year, this year it's too wet to burn. I suppose this is a blessing and I should take it as that somehow, you know me, I'm waiting for the other shoe to fall. In fall it will, something to do with moisture, and seasonal moisture brought about through global warming.

Our garden continues to produce almost wildly, Dianne harvests three or 4 Yellow crooked neck squash space daily. The eggplants continue to grow as a good children should. In fact yesterday we gave away a whole pot of producing a plant to Gabe and Bridget. I hope they will mature for those two as they have for us. The point being we have produce and now we have to use that produce. So, this morning I made a colossal squash and onion and pepper omelet. I surprised myself with how good the omelet turned out. The omelet looked beautiful one of the best omelets I've ever made and I must admit the omelet tasted pretty good to me as well. I only wish our tomatoes would've done as well. Luckily, however, one of our neighbors has given us a nice bag of tomatoes one of their kids raised. Hopefully, next year our tomatoes will be better.

Yesterday, Bridget Gabe and Asher were over and we hung out outside for a while. They were on their way to Lowes, and Lowe's was one of the places I want to get to this weekend. I'm seriously entertaining the thought of going ahead and purchasing a table saw on a safe and stable platform that would allow me to work on my sticks much safer than I am now. Going to another saw has been a difficult decision for me primarily for the reason that have a perfectly good saw sitting in the garage in the wheelbarrow. I've used this song without incident for the past five or seven years but I must admit the accident Alan Kimball had a few weeks ago with his lathe must give me pause. Dianne is in support of my purchasing this new piece of equipment so I should be gung ho but yet I like back and him slow to make the decision. However with the excursion to the store yesterday I am ready to go the next step and get the tablesaw

Cooler Temps With A Good Chance Of Showers

The summers cranking down, I could feel it. I was actually up early this morning don't know why, I just couldn't sleep any longer. I think I was excited about not only having the sink, my kitchen sink, repaired but also having a new handheld shower device installed in the shower. Dianne took out the broken handheld installed the new. Those two items alone may have risen the excitement level inside me to the point where I was done sleeping probably around 355 of 4 AM. I got up and cathed I returned to bed in full expectation of getting a few of more winks of sleep soon realized I was done sleeping for the night. I did lay in bed for another hour but finally drag myself up around six, showered and shaved(high and low) and got on deck made coffee and wash the dishes with the new faucet. Everything worked fantastic. I'm so pleased to have a new shower head and a new faucet of my kitchen sink. So why should I not be excited? I am so blessed.

It's not that I'm worried about the lack of sleep I'm experiencing because odd as it is I seem to get along fine during the day. Oh, I do enjoy those days that for one reason or another I do get more four or five hours of sleep– – these days are a gift and I cherish them when they come but I don't expect them. I should try to sleep, nap during the day especially now that I have time during the day where I could but I just don't. It's hard for me. I kind of think I wake up in the early morning, as I do, because I have a full bladder and of course in order to relieve that sensation I have to get up, transferred to my wheelchair and go in open up a catheter for about suited to my penis drain into the bag rinse the bag been pushed back into the bed and transfer. There have been days usually earlier in the night that I'm unable to fall back to sleep but it seems 3:30 AM or later I am too awake to return to slumberland. This was not an issue when I was in the workforce because I could get up get on with my routine, make breakfast and do whatever I get out to work. And everyone knows getting to work early is never frowned upon by your boss – – I would get a leg up on my day. And if nothing else, like when I worked for the state, I could use this time to write which I have to did this time was my blog time this worked out great. I miss this routine and regimentation that my life had. To keep this regimentation now would almost be a heroic effort. I am no hero.

The weather continues to be cool, cooler than expected for this time of year in fact, I consider wearing long for the first time this summer. This truly is discouraging but it's the way that it is and I'm thankful to have long pants and the physical ability to put them on myself. It looks like rain...

SUMMER'S END

The rains came last night with a vengeance are more accurately early this morning I was awakened by huge claps of thunder and what seemed a downpour of extended time outside my window. The only reason I bring this up is that it's August, usually a time of the summer of extreme heat and dry conditions. There is usually at least one major fire going on if not more taking all kinds of state resources to battle. Not this season not this year. This morning I went outside as soon as I got my cutoffs on and was surprised how cool the morning felt and how much the air smelled like Fall. I was kind of surprised as I keep an eye on the extended forecast and it sort of said, before this morning's storm the temperatures would be in the 90s and dry.. However,, this morning I looked at the extended forecast and it looks like we'll be lucky to get out of the the 70s as far as temperatures go. This is like late September. I'm sure things will dry out and will get warmer temps before winter sets in who knows?

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I came home from my day in the city and my Assist meeting to find Dianne getting ready to install a brand-new faucet on my sink. Dianne is incredibly brave to take a challenge on liked installation of a sink faucet. However I've learned, Dianne can do incredible things when she puts her mind to it. However it was just not to be last night. Too many things got in the way. This morning I suggested we find a professional for the job. We have the funding for such an operation, even though the expense sometimes, but really why not? We need to get the job done, we need to establish a relationship with a professional we can trust and call on when we did this come stuff taken care. I'm tired of putting the touch on neighbors, family and acquaintances to help me out these kinds of circumstances. I know, I'm taking the “blessings” from someone in my immediate circle who could use them. I guess I'm getting old I don't have the time or the patience to get the job done for free.

So it seems the seasons are changing earlier this year, my days of wearing shorts this year maybe at an end. Yesterday I got caught in the rain and the wind and I was cold and I wished that I had my hoodie. As I was dashing out of the house Dianne gave me a blanket or something which worked pretty good when I was in the rain waiting for the bus or traveling for my meeting to the library and back again. The point is I needed more than what I was wearing the point is the summer is rapidly coming to a close which means I need to start considering my winter clothes.

The Way It Is

The hot days are back again at least for a short while. It's the backside of August and I can feel the summer wrapping up, it makes me sad. I have loved is summer even though I have not been able to do as much as I would've liked. I can always hope for next summer. Next summer I hope to access my shop in the garage. I want to make hooks even if I cannot get to my lathes I would be happy to just vice the lead up and file the edges down and sand from there then twist the hooks.

I have not yet been able to use my modified home gym. Hopefully this week I can access the device and incorporate it into my daily life. I hope it will be the benefit I expect it to be. It just takes so long to get things squared away when you have to rely on other people. If the home gym is anywhere as beneficial as the rickshaw has been I know I will be pleased. Now it's just a matter of getting the gym to a place or I can use it when I want to, on my own time.

This summer is really the first summer of my retirement where I really have not been working one way or the other. I'm still involved in a little volunteer work but not like last year or year before. I'm finding it difficult to fill up my time, all the time that I have now. This is my fault and I have to better marshal myself to do the things I want to do. I'm not really staying up late but I'm sleeping in more than I have ever slept in before. I find myself getting up about 7 AM and that's not too bad I guess for being retired it just seems like I should be doing more or getting up earlier. But maybe this is what retirement is all about sleeping in and not taking yourself so seriously.

This summer has been my Red Box summer. I've never rented as many movies as I have this summer. Some movies have been good, some have been bad but all in all it is been fun going up to the red box everyday last couple weeks. I've actually been getting two movies a night, and that's just too much. I have to be doing more with what time I have. I don't know what I would do different if I could do anything different in my retirement. Every time I think I could be doing another job, you know just a part-time job I stop and remember that one of the reasons I took early retirement was because my body was begin to fail, cannot tolerate being up all the time like I was. Plus I don't want to have to deal with bosses and stress that work so often breeds. So I must resign myself to retirement, to being home and trying to make the most of it. It's just the way it is .

System Modification

The UCAT boys came out today to modify the weight machine I purchased a couple months ago. It took me a while to get the event set up especially since the machines outside under a tarp and they really don't have a place to put the machine once I do get it modified. I had to at least begin the modification or don't think I would ever get it done. I tend to get things and then just sit on once I get them and not really use them the way I wanted to. I do not know what this means but I'm trying to change this behavior and hence the boys from UCAT. I was worried that the weather would not hold, and the temperatures been lower last couple days overcast and thunder and lightning in the afternoons. It would not surprise me to have had a full scale downpour during the process.

Have admit I was nervous I did not know how this is going to go, I think I actually went out to the garage opened the garage up and played the like I was doing stuff and being productive– – so I would look productive to anyone driving up. The meeting was at 2 PM and I was getting concerned at 2:15 PM and no one had shown up yet. Shortly thereafter Kevin Christiansen pulled up and came over and I showed him what we were working with he seemed okay it's greatly set me to rest. Mr. Christiansen is an occupational therapist by training and his new into the job for what he lacks in experience he makes up with enthusiasm. It was not long after that a second individual showed up, I wish I could remember his name but for the life of me I cannot. He was a recreational therapist for training and it spent a good portion of his career in Utah County at the training center there, I feel a nefarious project which my last boss had valiantly tried to shut down. Of course the RT( recreational therapist) had just the opposite feelings that my boss had had which made for a bit of an awkward moment. Luckily, we had worked with each other when I managed Access Utah Network, as well as chaired the A T Council. We have good memories and sometimes that's all it takes to get past the awkward moment.

It took a moment or two but we removed the seat from the bench press section of the weight machine and I had them assemble the machine that we had taken apart in order to move the device to the house. One of the most exciting aspects of the afternoon was finding I did not have to do the special modification I was thinking to get the machine to mimic a rowing machine as well as a chest press. I will be able to do all these and perhaps other exercises I'm not aware of yet. The rain held off and the conversation was constant in the labor was free. I felt a little sad is recovered the machine with the tarps once the project was complete. I now must find a place where I can put the machine so I can begin to use it and reap the benefits of a healthy workout.

Lunch Date

I had lunch today with Darren. Darren is a bloke I first met when I was working/volunteering at 211 Information Referral. I believe I've labored the point before that 211 is affiliated with United Way . United Way is a slick operation, they do good deeds and United Way is staffed with beautiful and talented people. Darren is one of those beautiful talented people.

Darren's cubicle was on the way to my workstation, I was intrigued that Darren was often in his space ready to work when I would get tell to work and I was intrigued I was always early getting to work and started talking. Now, you have to understand the fish in 211 are different, much different than the fish found in the United Way tank space and I believe I intrigued Darren as much as he intrigued me.we then talked at one point about getting together off the clock but alas, that never happened. And since I started volunteering for the 211 advisory board I began crossing paths with Darren once more and we decided that we should follow through and meet on the “outside”.

We were actually supposed to have this lunch last week but I got bumped by a another operative and moved the lunch date to this week and eventually today. An almost perfect day, semi-overcast with threats of thundershowers. A perfect day to be out on the tarmac. I got to the restaurant quite early and I cruised the area checking out old haunts and new builds an waited—finally at the agreed time I moved to the front of the establishment and waited. At five minutes past an no Darren I cool, a lot can happen—there are many way to be late. I was not carrying my cell today I did not charge the machine last night. I could not call to make sure everything was ok and online. But, another couple of minutes and suddenly Darren zoomed up on his bike and all was cool actually Darren was cool I was just long for the ride having lunch out in the city just like the big kids.

We ate out on the sidewalk under a city tree. The 1200 o clock lunch rush had just erupted, office workers oozed out onto the walks like lava, our server hoovered bringing ice water and coke trying to get an order out of us. But we were slow, talking to much and catching up and forging new bonds. We finally ordered salad and steak kabobs, seriously better then I anticipated. We talked about the recent dead and how glad, those dead were not us. We were/are not ready to die just yet, even though I am retired. I had to be careful and mindful I am retired where Darren is still part o the work force an as such, still subject to the clock, he can be late but not too late, after all his is a pretty good job and he knows it. The hoverer came by on last time collecting dishes and leaving the tray for the credit cards, we went dutch this time maybe different next time if there is a next time.

Darren waved good by as he mounted his cool bike and sped away to the big building where he works. I headed toward the train platform—I still had to go to the bakery to get rolls for dinner, I promised I would.

Asking For Apricots

About this time every summer I seriously consider purchasing an apricot tree sampling and planting it somewhere in the backyard. Luckily, this thought only lasts a couple days as I cruise around the neighborhood and see how many apricot trees there are and how many are just totally loaded. In fact our next-door neighbors have a wonderful apricot tree. We should just ask them when the apricot's are on. We actually got a few apricots from the next-door neighbor this year but they complained about how few apricots they had, something to do with the lack of water or something. Dianne did make a number of pints of great apricot jam and I pretty much thought that was it for apricots for this year.

Dianne came home on Saturday all excited telling me that she had scarfed up a number of apricots that had fallen off a tree a couple blocks from our house and she wanted to go back and ask the owner of the property if we could pick some of the apricots off their tree—obviously they were not going to do anything with them—and she asked if I would go with her for moral support and asking. This clearly is new behavior on Dianne's part but I thought what the heck why not, although it can say is “no”! So we grabbed a couple of plastic bags from the market and a couple of flats that we had gotten at the movies earlier in the day( the kind they give you for your popcorn and drinks to carry back to your seats and). Actually those pretty bold thinking on our part thinking the owners would turn us loose on the apricot tree.

The property on which the tree lives has always been a mystery to me and my wife. It's a pretty large Spanish-style property all behind a high white brick fence. There's a number of buildings on this property I've noticed just rolling or driving by sense the place is on the way up to the main drag. The place always reminded me of like a compound – – I always thought of as mysterious as heck. Here we were on Saturday night walking up to the front door and knocking. I was totally blown away 30 seconds after a nice lady opened the door saw our bags, before we had a chance to say anything she just broke out in a smile and nodded her head said “knock yourself out pick as many as you like”. Of course this led to introductions and open communication. These folks are totally new in our neighborhood, only here a couple weeks or months and they seem fun as heck. We visited we got to know each other we probably spent an hour and a half there. The owners gave us a tour of the property it was amazing, it was even a swimming pool in the backyard that I knew nothing about. The compound is amazing as great old buildings that would make wonderful shops. I am totally envious.

This was totally the end of the apricots season the apricots were falling from the tree even as we spoke. They even let us use their special device which was a container on the end of a pole that you could use to hook and pull fruit off into the container. It worked pretty good and in no time we had both flats full of apricots. The apricots for small, soft but full of flavor. Dianne and I went home and Dianne put together three or 4 pints of apricot jelly. The next day, Sunday Dianne assembled a bottle of wine, a pint of jelly and a few other items to welcome our new neighbors and friends to a neighborhood. Who would've believed such good could come from asking for apricots?

What Now Charlie Brown ?!!

I am such a Charlie Brown I live with you during hope that things are going to get better and for the most part that is what happens it's been proven to me time and time again. I live in perpetual hope. However more and more lately I feel like Charlie Brown and life is Lucy getting ready to pull the football away as I approached once again in the belief that I will kick the ball to success. This is a picture of my garage / workshop. Believe it or not this is the most organized this area has been for a couple of years. I am excited. I have the belief / hope I will soon again be  making  hooks in my garage. Dianne has been working very hard clean out the garage and make space for me in my projects. You can see I still have a great distance to travel before I will have real working space in the garage. But for now I can actually access parts of my workbench I need to to make hooks. I still need to access my table saw so I can rip some pieces of wood down to accessible acceptable hook sizes. I am even considering getting a newer if not a new table saw which would be a great deal safer then the table saw I own now. The tool  I currently use is a small 10 inch saw from Sears which I have placed in a wheel barrel, which puts the machine  low enough that I can access it from my power chair wheelchair for that matter. The main drawback is the whole set up is just not very safe.

In fact I really don't even need a power saw, I have a straight back bamboo saw that I really love to use except I couldn't really rip wood which I need to do to get the blanks I need to process into sticks that I eventually twist the hooks into. And I could  use the power to work my palm  sander but I could get by with just sand paper which would be pretty good cardio for me anyway. The biggest desire I have it's not access the hand tools or power tools but just having access to my work area, my beloved work area.. A place where I could go to be on my own make a little sawdust and a hook which makes me feel I have changed something in the world a little bit that day. But it looks like I wandered from the topic sentence again. What I want to end this post with is me taking a deep breath running towards Lucy and praying she does not pull the  ball back at the last minute and once again has me falling completely on my back.

Blue Mouse?

Last week I had my monthly 211 advisory board meeting at the 257 building in downtown Salt Lake. As usual I went a couple hours early just to make sure I got there on time but in truth I like to just knock around downtown to see what I can see. This day I dropped in on this little coffee shop directly to the block from my building. The coffee shop itself is located in the cluster of artsy shops which I have enjoyed over the years. I got to thinking as I enjoyed my coffee waiting for my meeting there used to be an interesting little theater in this area. The theater itself is called the Blue Mouse, a quaint small independent theater screening artsy films. I may be wrong but it seemed the theater itself was down flight stairs. I seem to remember being carried down the stairs at least once many twice – – it was a spooky ordeal in all manners of the word, spooky. I want to see how much of the theater remained . The blue mouse had been located at 260 E. 100 S. the blue mouse of course, is gone but remains gloomy blew away.

The exterior of the theater was still recognizable if you knew what to look for. The front had been redone modernized to a fair degree. The remodel totally blended in to make the place almost invisible to someone who was not looking for it. I was amazed. I sat there and just stared wondering if the screen was still there, the restrooms just, what was it like on the inside now. Then I begin to notice the images that were stuck in the Windows. It took me a moment to focus to realize the nondescript messaging was kind of frightening. There is a line of images, silhouettes of soldiers under which were the words GLOBAL WARFIGHTER SUPPO, I'm sure suppo was support. Whatever this place was it was an international support operation who knows what on a global scale. I probably do some pretty stupid, but I so intrigued with the message that I took images of the signage. I'm totally convinced the whole area is surveillanced – – I saw a number of cameras tucked away so I'm sure they have my image somewhere now. If I were to come back after twice then I'm sure interest to be peaked but now even now I would not be surprised to get a knock on the door to ask what I was doing there.

When I got home that evening I took some of the imaging or references off the image that I posted with this blog posting and ran through just Google and I was blown away, if I had hair in my head it would have been standing and I didn't even go to some of the references that came up who knows could be tracking my keystrokes?

SATURDAY'S make me feel like I can do anything

Blog 080 214 – – Saturday

It’s August the last month of summer, I need to get going on the projects I want to finish by summer’s end or they not going to get done. Of course the big project now facing me is modifying my recently purchased weight machine so that I can use it. I also would like to be able to use my rickshaw and even do a little work in my woodshop before the snow flies and the temperature drops so low I cannot stay in the garage to work. I do hold hope that enough of the garage will be cleared so that I will be able to access my tools and wood. In fact today I’m considering going out to the garage and moving some stuff around and getting to some of my Woodstock and trying to make some hooks or maybe Work on some hooks. I noticed when I was in the garage yesterday that I did have some pieces that looked as if they just needed a little rehabilitation. This would be fun and somewhat rewarding. I even thought about getting some blanks and retrieving my saw in a wheelbarrow system and cutting some wood down to the right dimensions.

About a year ago when I really began slipping into retirement I toyed with the idea of getting a contractors quality saw system. You know the kind that’s in a sturdy set up, on wheels easily maneuvered and safer than what I’m using currently. The garage is not cleaned out, at the time, and I just did not want to acquire another piece of equipment that I could not use I don’t know if my little heart could just take that then. Now however I am open to revisiting the option of a contractors grade table saw, easily movable and safe or safer for me to use than my little Sears saw in a wheelbarrow. Gosh I just hate acquiring more junk and stuff that will have to be given away at my demise. But if I can keep enough interest and hope that I can once again work in my wood shop I think I would be willing to make the leap. This will probably cause me to spend endless hours wandering around KSL.com to see what might be there rather than just going to Sears or Home Depot and acquiring the equipment. I drive myself crazy I really do. But it’s Saturday and I love Saturdays, Saturday make me feel I can do anything at least in the morning. OH OH I better get going it’s after 12 o’clock!

Sigh

Earlier this week, Wednesday I attended the 211 meeting which bills itself as an advisory board meeting, and it’s amazing how quick I can get back into my cynical self – – actually maybe my cynical self is never really left just lying dormant but lurking just beneath the surface of my elderly retired face.

It seems the 211 advisory board, as I understood was to wrestle with the issue of building the disability awareness call list in case of emergency. That is not the appropriate title but is the best I can come up with right this second. The advisory board which seems to be called “211 disability advisory board“ is now wrestling with some age-old questions regarding disability, nomenclature, and the training of 211 operators in dealing with “disability calls“. In the 18 or so months I put in it  as their disability operator, also as part of my mission to assist in the development of a training procedure to train nondisabled operators and how to respond to disability calls. I think we had a fairly gifted VISTA volunteer try to develop such a training regimen, it did not happen. Now, I believe I don’t think it can, I believe those folks who could be disability operators are born disability operators. I still believe the operators can be trained to better assist the caller wanting disability information but I doubt the operator will give us good of information as the caller might get from a disability specific organization or cross disability organization like an independent living center.

The 211 director, who was at this meeting, was quite insistent that the call be handled from a standpoint of assisting the caller to break the chain of events that got them to the point of this call. In my experience this is almost psychobabble. Many times/most times the caller needs money to meet their needs their immediate needs, whether it’s dealing with an eviction, transportation food or medication. The caller needs immediate fix not a long-term explanation or historical examination of self to see how they got to this disposition.

The meeting ended by developing an agenda for the next meeting in late August. I have been charged with finding some other individuals who will sit on this board and be able to give their input as to what 211 operators need to know to best respond to disability related calls. I was hesitant upon hearing this and I still am but I am also become interested in putting out an invitation to a number of my colleagues in disability work to join me at this meeting late August to examine this question. I’m quite interested to find out what they will say and what the 211 director will hear. This almost excites me more than it depresses me because the problems that exist out there for people disabilities are the problems of the low income since most individuals with disabilities are low income. Will this battle ever end?